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THE  LIBRARIES 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF 
THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF 
THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS 

VIVID  AND  DRAMATIC  EPISODES  OF  THE  PEACE 
CONFERENCE  FROM  ITS  OPENING  AT  PARIS  TO 
THE  SIGNING  OF  THE  TREATY  OF  VERSAILLES 


BY 


HARRY  HANSEN 


**J  am  doubtful  whether  any  body  of  men  with  a 
difficult  task  have  worked  under  greater  difficulties 
—stones  crackling  on  the  roof  and  crashing  through 
the  windoics,  and  sometimes  wild  men  screaming 
through  the  key-holes."— David  Lloyd  George, 


ILLUSTRATED  WITH  PHOTOGRAPHS 


NEW  YORK 
THE  CENTURY  CO. 
191:) 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
The  Century  Co. 


Published,  October,  1919 


9^1^.'^! 


./r' 


'^ 


TO 
RUTH 


.  .  .  ''  Yes,  indeed,  you  may  use  anything  and  every- 
thing you  have  ever  written  for  us." 

Victor  F.  Lawson. 

Thank  you,  Mr.  Lawson,  for  this,  and  for  the  many 
other  -anusual  privileges  that  have  come  to  me  in  the 
service  of  The  Chicago  Daily  News. 

Harry  Hansen. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I  PAGE 

I  am  admitted  to  the  Hotel  de  Crillon  and  visit  the 
sacred  precincts  of  the  American  mission  to  nego- 
tiate peace  —  I  attend  a  consultation  over  the 
Fourteen  Points,  and  learn  something  about  their 
strange  ailment 3 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Place  de  la  Concorde  and  the  Quai  d'Orsay  on  a 
sunny  January  morning  —  I  become  interested  in 
the  last  word  of  kings  and  the  balance  of  power    .     19 

CHAPTER  III 

Concerning  the  relative  importance  of  a  peace  confer- 
ence and  a  foot-ball  game,  and  how  it  feels  to  sur- 
vey the  great  of  the  earth  through  a  doorway  .      .     32 

CHAPTER  IV 

How  President  Wilson  went  across  the  seas  with  his 
formula  for  peace,  and  found  that  Europe  had  a 
few  ideas  on  the  same  subject 48 

CHAPTER  V 

M.  Clemenceau  becomes  the  victim  of  an  assassin's  bul- 
let, and  proves  that  his  physique  is  as  strong  as 
his  will  is  firm 71 

CHAPTER  VI 

An  invitation  to  tea  lures  me  to  the  Hotel  Lutetia,  and 
I  learn  how  40,000,000  human  beings  fare  on  the 

other  side  of  the  world 84 

ix 


\^ 


( 

V 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  VII  PAGE 

A  dip  into  President  Wilson's  mail-bag  and  what  I 
found  there  —  Also  throwing  light  on  what  hap- 
pened when  the  smaller  nations  heard  of  self-de- 
termination         101 

CHAPTER  VIII 

How  the  Prince  of  the  Hedjaz  pitched  his  Arabian 
tent  in  the  apartments  of  a  Parisian  hotel,  and 
how  he  disconcerted  the  plans  for  a  Jewish  Pales- 
tine and  a  French  Syria  by  his  modest  request  for 
the  empire  of  the  calif  ate 117 

CHAPTER  IX 

The  story  of  a  little  town  called  Fiume,  and  how  the 
amazing  unanimity  with  which  all  parties  con- 
cerned applied  the  Fourteen  Points  almost  dis- 
rupted the  Peace  Conference 136 

CHAPTER  X 

Conference  days  in  Paris  —  Jottings  from  a  note-book 

in  the  year  of  the  great  peace 180 

CHAPTER  XI 

How  Belgium  set  about  to  get  a  brand-new  parchment 

for  a  tattered  scrap  of  paper,  and  what  came  of  it  194 

CHAPTER  XII 

The  eighth  point  wins  a  splendid  victory,  and  then 
comes  the  Saar  basin,  and  the  whole  fourteen  suf- 
fer an  eclipse 211 

CHAPTER  XIII 

The  President  prepares  a  garden  party  at  Principe, 
and  the  invited  guests  drag  out  the  family  skele- 
ton  239 


COiSTTENTS  xi 

CHAPTER  XIV  PAGE 

Walks  in  the  Paris  of  the  conference,  and  how  they  led 

to  haunts  of  another  day 270 

CHAPTER  XV 

"  Nach  Paris ! "  said  the  Germans,  and  how  they 
finally  got  there.  Also  showing  that  the  German 
sometimes  not  only  gets  what  he  wants,  but  also 
what  is  coming  to  him 284 

CHAPTER  XVI 

A  pilgrimage  to  the  Hall  of  Mirrors  at  Versailles,  and 
how  it  recalls  the  founding  of  an  empire  forty- 
eight  years  ago 306 

CHAPTER  XVII 

How  Count  von  Brockdorff-Rantzau  made  use  of  his 
fifteen  days,  which  were  pretty  dark,  and  his  fif- 
teen nights,  which  were  just  as  dark     ....   323 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

The  story  of  the  twenty-eighth  of  June,  and  how  Ger- 
many found  peace  at  the  end  of  a  long,  long  road 
in  Versailles 345 

CHAPTER  XIX 

President  Wilson  leaves  France  with  two  treaties  of 
peace,  and  the  United  States  Senate  gets  the  stage 
at  last 360 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  American  State  Department  in  Paris      .  Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

The  American  Mission  to  Negotiate  Peace  ....     24 

The  Opening  of  the  Peace  Conference  in  Paris,  Janu- 
ary 18,  1919 40 

The  Commission  on  the  League  of  Nations  ....  52 

The  Chinese  Delegation  to  the  Peace  Conference   .      .  88 

The  Japanese  Delegation  to  the  Peace  Conference     .  92 

Two  Leaders  of  the  British  Delegation 112 

The  Emir  Feisal,  Son  of  the  King  of  the  Hedjaz  .      .  128 

Four  Leaders  in  the  Negotiations  on  Fiume     .      .      .  140 

The  First  American  Troops  to  Enter  Fiume     .      .      .  160 

The  First  President  of  the  United  States  in  Paris       .  224 

Ignace  Paderewski 248 

The  Two  White  Houses  of  Paris 272 

The  Great  Windows  of  the  Palace  at  Versailles      .      .312 

Germany's  Eepresentatives  in  Versailles     ....  328 

Germany  Signs  the  Treaty  of  Peace      .     .     ..     .     .352 


xiii 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  THE 
FOURTEEN  POINTS 


THE  ADVENTURES  OF  THE 
FOURTEEN  POINTS 

CHAPTER  I 

I  am  admitted  to  the  Hotel  de  Crillon  and  visit  the  sacred 
precincts  of  the  American  mission  to  negotiate  peace  —  I  attend 
a  consultation  over  the  Fourteen  Points,  and  learn  something  about 
their  strange  ailment. 

The  lad  in  khaki  at  the  entrance  to  the  Hotel  de 
Crillon  gave  the  revolving  glass  door  a  shove,  and  I  per- 
colated inside.  Straight  ahead  were  the  stairs  and 
two  elevators.     I  headed  for  the  latter. 

"  Stop ! '' 

''Arretezf' 

"  Just  a  moment,  please ! '' 

So  there  were  three  of  them.  Very  well.  I  halted, 
and  looked  them  over.  One  was  a  soldier  in  O.  D. 
About  his  left  sleeve  he  wore  a  broad  band  of  blue  on 
which  was  embroidered  in  white  the  scales  of  .Justice 
surrounded  by  a  garland.  It  was  his  badge  of  honor 
—  the  insignia  of  service  at  the  Peace  Conference. 
The  second  might  have  stepped  off  the  floor  at  Field's 
or  Lord  &  Taylor's.  He  wore  a  black  cutaway,  with 
a  kerchief  in  the  pocket,  and  striped  trousers.  The 
third  was  a  French  functionary  pure  and  simple.  'No 
need  to  describe  him ;  he  was  like  the  rest  of  that  great 
tribe  whose  motto  is  "  Stop !     Sit  down !     Wait !  " 

"  What  do  you  want  ?  "  asked  the  American  floor- 
walker. 

3 


4  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

^'  I  want  to  see  the  peace  commission,"  I  replied. 

"  The  American  Mission  to  Negotiate  Peace  does  n't 
see  any  one,"  began  my  interrogator;  then  he  hesi- 
tated, looked  me  over,  and  added,  "  unless  — "  You 
never  can  tell,  was  his  thought.  Paris  is  full  of  presi- 
dents, premiers,  and  princes  of  the  blood  in  ^'  civies." 
This  lanky  fellow  might  be  somebody  — '^  Unless,"  he 
resumed,  ^'  you  have  an  appointment." 

^'  I  am  a  newspaper  man,"  I  said  irrelevantly. 

The  soldier  fell  back  to  his  place  beside  the  door. 
The  floor-walker  executed  a  half-circle,  and  then  gazed 
dreamily  through  the  large  glass  panel.  The  French- 
man passed  his  arm  quietly  through  mine. 

''S'il  vous  plait,"  he  remarked,  and  deftly  piloted 
me  into  the  carpeted  and  mirrored  anteroom  to  the 
left  of  the  door. 

"  S'il  vous  plait,"  he  repeated,  and  procured  a  slip 
of  paper  that  was  evidently  to  be  filled  out  for  the 
statistical  section  of  the  Census  Bureau.  It  was  printed 
in  two  languages,  like  this: 


Pass  Paris 1919 

Permis  No 

This  pass  entitles 

Ce  permis  est  delivr^  k 

Representing 

Repr^sentant    

To  visit  room 

Pour  se  rendre  a  la  chambre 

And  must  be  surrendered  to  guard  at  main  entrance 

on  leaving  the  building. 
Ce  permis   doit  etre   rendu   au   soldat   de   garde   en 

quittant  I'hotel 

Officer  in  charge  of  building. 
Officier  responsable. 


THE  FOUKTEEN  PO^TS  5 

After  all,  it  was  elementary.  It  did  not  ask  half 
so  much  as  did  the  American  passport  office  in  Wash- 
ington, or  the  British  bureau  to  retard  well-meaning 
travelers  at  Southampton,  or  the  French  madhouse  of 
statistical  information  at  the  prefecture  of  police  in 
Paris.  It  did  not  ask  for  my  mother's  maiden  name, 
my  wife's  birthday,  or  whether  my  neighbors  kept 
chickens.  It  was  getting  easier  every  day  to  see  the 
office  boy  of  the  tenth  clerk  of  the  fourth  secretary. 
I  filled  it  out. 

'^  Asseyez  vous,  s'il  vous  plait/'  said  the  French- 
man. 

I  sat  down.  [N'umerous  others  were  also  sitting  down. 
I  could  tell  by  the  nonchalance  with  which  they  studied 
the  hangings,  the  mirrors,  the  red  carpet,  the  furniture, 
and  lastly  myself  that  they  also  were  observing  the 
magic  formula,  "  Wait !  "  One  man  was  inclined  to 
stoutness.  He  wore  a  striped  shirt  with  soft  cuffs,  a 
plain  bow  tie,  a  watch-chain  across  his  chest,  and  an 
Elk  emblem  in  his  coat-lapel.  Another  wore  a  check 
suit,  a  white  four-in-hand,  and  had  long,  grayish  hair 
that  curled  up  under  the  brim  of  his  hat.  Under  his 
arm  he  held  a  packet  of  manuscript  and  the  year-book  of 
the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  A  third  man 
had  a  fair  skin,  a  neatly  curled  Vandyke  beard,  silk 
gloves,  and  a  red  ribbon  in  his  buttonhole.     A  fourth  — 

But  the  Frenchman  had  returned.  He  handed  me 
the  slip. 

''  Merci/'  he  said.     ''  Le  premier  etage." 

"  Thank  you,"  I  replied.  My  honest  purpose  must 
have  shone  forth  in  my  countenance.     The  Triple  Al- 


6  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

liance  had  approved  me.     I  was  admitted.     I  started 
briskly  for  the  first  floor. 

Here  was  the  corridor  leading  to  the  rooms  of  the 
American  mission.  It  was  filled  for  the  most  part 
with  rather  young-looking  Americans,  men  who  aver- 
aged about  thirty  years  of  age.  At  a  table  near  the 
head  of  the  stairs  sat  several  doughboys,  evidently  act- 
ing as  orderlies;  before  the  doors  leading  to  the  con- 
ference-room of  the  mission  stood  other  orderlies. 
Potted  palms  looked  sad  and  forlorn  in  great  vases  of 
glazed  white  porcelain.  The  walls  were  of  grayish 
stone,  the  doors  and  woodwork  were  enameled  white, 
and  the  door-panels  contained  mirrors. 

Presently  the  door  would  open  to  these  men  and  to 
the  world.  That,  at  least,  was  my  thought,  for  these 
were  newspaper  men  and  they  were  here  to  see  and 
hear  for  the  American  public.  They  must  be,  I  judged, 
men  who  had  reached  the  pinnacle  of  their  profession. 
What /they  wrote  in  the  morning  was  carried  by  the 
cables  to  the  American  people  at  noon,  and  soon  after 
the  printing  presses  would  be  grinding  out  their  stories 
and  the  newsboys  would  be  hawking  them  in  the  streets. 
I  walked  over  to  a  group.  There  was  Paul  Scott 
Mowrer. 

"  Well,  I  'm  in,"  I  said. 

"  Did  you  get  your  pass  ? ''  asked  Mowrer. 

''  What  pass  ?  "  I  asked. 

^'  Your  card  of  identification.  You  can't  come  here 
day  after  day  without  a  card.  Of  course  I  can  get 
you  in  to-day,  but  if  you  came  alone,  the  detectives 
might  not  pass  you.     Go  to  the  top  floor  of  the  adjoin- 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  Y 

ing  building,  the  Coislen.  There  you  will  find  the 
photographers  of  the  signal  corps.  They  will  photo- 
graph you.  A  day  later  you  will  get  your  card  with 
your  photograph  from  the  major  of  infantry  in  the  press 
bureau.  Then  on  the  card  you  will  put  your  signa- 
ture." 

"  And  thumb-prints  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Not  yet,"  he  replied. 

A  buzzer  sounded. 

"  All  right,  gentlemen,"  said  an  orderly.  The  men 
turned  toward  the  doors  and  slowly  passed  into  the  ante- 
chamber. At  the  door  stood  a  dark-haired,  slightly 
built  man  wearing  a  soft  felt  hat.  He  had  bright, 
pleasing  eyes,  and  as  we  passed,  they  rested  for  an 
instant  on  each  face.  Some  one  whispered  that  he  was 
from  the  White  House.  He  had  a  wonderful  memory, 
they  said,  for  faces. 

The  newspaper  men  filed  into  the  room,  and  stood 
about  in  groups  talking  and  laughing.  The  members 
of  the  peace  mission  had  not  yet  arrived,  so  that  I  had 
a  minute  to  look  about  me.  We  had  entered  an  im- 
posing room,  wide  and  high,  well  lighted  by  great  dou- 
ble windows  that  opened  out  on  the  Place  de  la  Con- 
corde and  through  which  I  could  see  the  columns  of 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies  and  the  lantern  over  Na- 
poleon's tomb  in  the  Hotel  des  Invalides.  A  wide  Per- 
sian rug,  superimposed  on  a  red  velvet  carpet,  covered 
most  of  the  floor.  It  was  a  typically  French  interior, 
with  the  walls  done  in  white  enamel  on  wood  and  mirrors 
used  liberally,  especially  in  the  door-panels.  But  just 
like  the  Bourbon  kings  who  gave  this  style  of  decora- 


8  THE  ADVENTUEES  OF 

tion  to  the  world,  the  architects  had  not  been  satisfied 
with  simplicitj;  they  had  added  heavy  moldings,  rich 
with  gold-leaf,  and  had  brought  out  in  high  relief  on 
the  ceiling  strange  figures  and  garlands  and  imple- 
ments of  warfare.  The  eye  was  drawn  at  once  to  the 
wide  gilded  cornice  that  had  four  eagles  at  the  angles 
of  the  room,  with  wings  outstretched  as  if  to  hold  up 
the  very  roof  of  the  w^orld.  I  would  have  considered 
them  at  least  symbols  of  our  republic  amid  all  this 
imperial  splendor,  had  I  not  reflected  that  the  eagle  is 
no  homing  pigeon ;  he  has  served  with  equanimity  on 
the  standards  of  the  Koman  legions,  the  Napoleonic 
armies,  the  arms  of  Hohenzollern  and  Hapsburg,  and 
yet  he  appears  most  contented  on  the  great  seal  of  our 
own  republic  across  the  seas. 

Of  the  men  who  filled  the  room  many  had  names 
that  were  well  known  in  the  United  States.  There 
was  Ray  Stannard  Baker,  for  instance,  who  was  the 
officer  of  liaison  between  the  American  mission  and  the 
press  and  was  perhaps  closer  in  touch  with  the  Presi- 
dent during  the  conference  than  any  other  man.  Then 
there  was  William  Allen  White,  with  his  rotund  face 
wreathed  in  smiles,  and  Abraham  Cahan,  oracle  of 
New  York's  great  East  Side,  the  center  of  an  attentive 
group  of  young  writers.  Herbert  Bayard  Swope  of  the 
New  York  "  World  "  was  lifting  his  voice  high  above 
the  others  in  a  good-natured  effort  to  down  Laurence 
Hills  of  the  New  York  "  Sun ''  in  argument ;  and  others 
gathered  round  about  included  Mark  Sullivan  of  "  Col- 
lier's," Arthur  D.  Howden  Smith,  who  wrote  "  The 
Eeal  Colonel  House " ;   S.   S.   McClure,   John  Edwin 


THE  FOUKTEEN  P0I:N^TS  9 

I^evin,  David  Lawrence,  Richard  V.  Oulahan,  Lincoln 
Steffens,  Simeon  Strunsky,  and  Jay  Hayden.  There, 
too,  I  saw  Edward  Hood,  Washington  correspondent  of 
the  Associated  Press,  whom  I  learned  to  esteem  more 
and  more  as  the  days  went  on  for  his  quiet  manner,  his 
calm  speech,  his  direct,  and  yet  polite,  interrogation,  and 
for  his  unusual  knowledge  of  American  affairs,  which 
went  back  as  far  as  the  Alabama  case,  one  of  his  first 
assignments. 

A  memorandum  blank  on  a  marble-topped  table  bore 
the  title  "  The  American  Mission  to  Negotiate  Peace.'' 
A  bit  meticulous,  I  reflected,  and  yet  probably  prompted 
by  the  circumstances.  I  wondered  if  the  same  formal 
style  was  observed  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  years 
ago  by  our  first  peace  mission  to  Paris  —  by  John  Jay, 
John  Adams,  and  plain,  blunt  old  Benjamin  Franklin. 

One  of  the  big  mirrored  doors  at  the  end  of  the 
room  swung  back,  and  the  members  of  the  American 
mission  entered.  First  came  Robert  Lansing,  secre- 
tary of  state,  well  groomed,  well  poised,  nodding  in  a 
friendly  way,  with  the  end  of  his  mouth  curled  into  a 
bit  of  a  smile.  Since  1892,  when  he  became  associate 
counsel  in  the  Bering  Sea  arbitration  matter,  he  had 
been  in  intimate  touch  with  the  foreign  relations  of  the 
United  States.  Then  came  Henry  White,  a  tall,  solidly 
built  man  with  white  hair,  who  walked  forward  with  a 
bit  of  stoop  and  peered  sharply  through  his  glasses. 
Colonel  Edward  M.  House  followed,  a  most  unassuming 
man  for  the  part  he  had  played  in  American  political 
life.  Lastly  came  General  Tasker  H.  Bliss,  with  the 
rugged  features  of  an  out-of-doors  army  man,  wearing 


10  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

the  uniform  of  liis  rank,  with  a  badge  of  colored  ribbon 
on  his  breast.  General  Bliss  strode  forward  with  the 
air  of  a  busy  man,  sank  into  a  comfortable  leather  chair, 
and  began  to  examine  a  sheaf  of  papers  as  if  no  one  else 
were  in  the  room. 

Technically,  of  course,  these  men  were  not  repre- 
sentatives of  the  United  States  Government  at  all,  but 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  who  alone  was 
empowered  to  negotiate  peace.  It  was  said  by  his  op- 
ponents that  although  the  American  mission  had  five 
members,  it  had  in  effect  only  one  mind,  and  that  this 
mind  moved  the  other  four  as  puppets  tied  to  strings. 
No  doubt  the  President  was  the  dominating  member, 
but  it  would  have  been  unjust,  to  say  that  these  men 
were  mere  agents.  It  might  have  been  better  expressed 
by  saying  that  the  policy  of  the  United  States  at  the 
Peace  Conference  was  directed  by  one  man,  and  that 
the  members  of  the  American  mission  presented  a  united 
front  under  his  leadership. 

That  the  President  was  thoroughly  cognizant  of  his 
power  to  assume  full  responsibility  for  the  United 
States  in  the  peace  negotiations  is  clear  from  the  fol- 
lowing paragraph  in  his  book,  '^  Constitutional  Govern- 
ment in  the  United  States  " : 

"  One  of  the  greatest  of  the  president's  powers  I  have  not 
spoken  of  at  all:  his  control,  which  is  very  absolute,  of  the  for- 
eign relations  of  the  nation.  The  initiative  in  foreign  affairs, 
which  the  president  possesses  without  any  restriction  whatever, 
is  virtually  the  power  to  control  them  absolutely.  The  president 
cannot  conclude  a  treaty  with  a  foreign  power  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  senate,  but  he  may  guide  every  step  of  diplomacy, 
and  to  guide  diplomacy  is  to  determine   what  treaties  must  be 


THE  FOUETEEISr  POINTS  11 

made  if  the  faith  and  prestige  of  the  government  are  to  be 
maintained.  He  need  disclose  no  step  of  negotiation  until  it  is 
complete  and  when  in  any  critical  matter  it  is  completed  the  gov- 
ernment is  virtually  committed,  whatever  its  disinclination,  and 
the  senate  may  feel  itself  committed  also. 

These,  then,  were  the  men  who  were  to  make  peace 
with  Germany.  On  my  way  to  Paris  I  had  already  be- 
come convinced  that  making  peace  was  not  likely  to 
be  so  easy  a  matter  as  it  seemed  on  JSTovember  11,  1918. 
Although  I  had  regarded  the  basis  of  peace  virtually 
settled  with  the  adoption  of  the  President's  Fourteen 
Points  by  the  Allies  and  by  the  Germans,  I  was  to 
learn  that  somebody  had  sprinkled  tacks  plentifully  on 
the  road  to  be  traversed  by  the  peacemakers.  And 
what  opened  my  eyes  more  than  anything  else  to  the 
fact  that  the  conference  might  not  have  smooth  sail- 
ing was  the  interrogation  of  the  American  mission, 
which  now  took  place. 

Secretary  Lansing  actually  invited  the  deluge.  He 
might  have  avoided  it,  poor  man,  but  he  did  n't.  He 
adopted  an  easy  pose,  with  his  legs  slightly  apart,  and 
said: 

"  Well,  gentlemen,  what  can  I  do  for  you  to-day  ?  " 

I  think  it  was  Herbert  Bayard  Swope  who  led  the 
chase, —  at  least,  he  was  well  in  the  van, —  and  the 
first  question  was  something  like  this : 

"  Is  it  true  that  no  one  is  to  be  admitted  to  the 
Peace  Conference  except  the  delegates  and  that  all  the 
work  is  to  be  done  in  secret  ?  " 

Secretary  Lansing  replied  — 

At  this  moment  a  friend  whispered  in  my  ear.     ^'  You 


12  THE  ADVENTURES  OE 

know,  of  course,  that  you  cannot  quote  the  secretary,"  he 
said. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  I  asked. 

'^  Impossible ;  it 's  against  the  agreement,"  he  said. 
"  The  mission  meets  the  newspaper  men  only  on  condi- 
tion that  its  members  are  not  to  be  quoted." 

^'  Then  what  are  we  here  for  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Eor  our  guidance,"  he  replied. 

So  I  am  compelled  to  omit  what  the  secretary  said. 
But  nobody  was  under  any  obligations  not  to  quote  the 
questions  that  were  asked  him.  So  I  give  herewith  the 
questions,  and  leave  the  secretary's  answers  blank. 
Some  day  in  the  future,  perhaps  fifty  years  from  now, 
the  ban  may  be  lifted,  and  the  answers  given  to  a  wait- 
ing world.     Who  knows  ? 

"  Will  nobody  be  admitted  to  the  conference  ?  " 

"  Won't  the  newspapers  be  admitted  ?  " 

a ^  ^  » 

''  Won't  the  public  be  admitted  ?  " 

*'  Who  is  responsible  for  this  decision,  the 
President  ?  " 

"      .      .  " 

"  Did  n't  the  President  tell  Senator  Borah  that  the 
treaty  would  be  negotiated  in  public  ?  " 

a  )? 

"  What  has  become  of  the  point  about  '  open  cove- 
nants of  peace,  openly  arrived  at,  after  which  there 
shall  be  no  private  international  understanding  of  any 


THE  FOUKTEElSr  POINTS  13 

kind,  but  diplomacy  shall  proceed  always  frankly  and 
in  public  view  ? '  " 

a  '> 

The  secretary  is  a  diplomat  of  the  first  order.  His 
answers  prove  it.  I  made  a  mental  note  that  the  first 
of  the  Eourteen  Points  was  limping  badly.  The  George 
Washington  seemed  to  have  had  a  tempestuous  voyage 
across. 

At  that  moment  some  one  wanted  to  know  whether 
it  was  true  that  President  Wilson  had  agreed  to  let 
the  British  protect  the  freedom  of  the  seas.  It  was 
said  that  Colonel  House  himself  had  fathered  point  two, 
which  dealt  with  the  freedom  of  the  seas,  and  that  at 
one  time  he  held  the  view  that  the  high  seas  should  be 
free  for  all  vessels,  neutral  or  belligerent,  during  war, 
and  that  combats  should  be  limited  only  to  war-ships. 
The  phraseology  of  this  one  of  the  Fourteen  Points 
seemed  to  bear  this  out,  for  it  began :  ^'  Absolute  free- 
dom of  navigation  upon  the  seas,  outside  territorial 
waters,  alike  in  peace  and  in  war."  But  there  was  this 
qualifying  clause,  ^'  except  as  the  seas  may  be  closed  in 
whole  or  in  part  by  international  action  for  the  enforce- 
ment of  international  covenants."  The  President  ap- 
peared to  have  had  in  mind  action  by  the  League  of 
^Nations. 

Secretary  Lansing  himself  was  on  record  with  re- 
gard to  the  freedom  of  the  seas.  In  communicating  to 
Germany  the  decision  of  the  Allies  to  make  peace  on 
the  basis  of  the  terms  laid  down  in  President  Wilson's 
address  to  Congress  of  January  8,  1918,  he  said  that 
"  they  [the  Allies]  must  point  out,  however,  that  clause 


14  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

two,  relating  to  what  is  usually  described  as  freedom 
of  the  seas,  is  open  to  various  interpretations,  some  of 
which  they  could  not  accept.  They  must  therefore  re- 
serve to  themselves  complete  freedom  on  this  subject 
when  they  enter  the  Peace  Conference." 

It  appeared  that  none  of  the  correspondents  knew 
just  what  the  President  meant  to  submit  to  the  Peace 
Conference  on  the  subject  of  the  freedom  of  the  seas; 
and  it  also  appeared  that,  whatever  it  was,  the  American 
mission  was  either  not  ready  or  not  in  a  position  to 
define  it.  The  term  "  freedom  of  the  seas,"  which  had 
been  loosely  used  by  the  Germans  for  anything  that 
would  hamper  Great  Britain's  sea  power,  seemed  to 
have  undergone  numerous  attempts  at  definition;  and 
now,  on  the  eve  of  the  peace,  it  appeared  to  mean, 
^'  Hands  Off !  "  At  least  that  was  the  purport  of  what 
M.  Clemenceau,  Premier  of  Prance,  said  he  had  agreed 
to  in  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  Prime 
Minister  of  England,  and  before  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  he  related  that  he  had  repeated  this  conver- 
sation to  the  American  President,  who  had  replied: 
"  I  approve  what  you  said  to  Mr.  Lloyd  George.  What 
I  have  to  submit  to  the  Allied  governments  will  change 
nothing  in  your  replies  to  Mr.  Lloyd  George.  Each 
one  will  retain  his  freedom." 

^'  By  the  way,  Mr.  Secretary,"  came  a  voice  from 
another  quarter, —  the  voice  of  a  man  who,  strange  to 
say,  represented  an  American  newspaper  that  had  a 
German  name, — '^  when  is  the  American  army  going 
to  evacuate  Russia  ?  " 

At  this  there  was  a  titter  of  amusement.     I  did  n't 


THE  rOUETEEN  POINTS  15 

know  why  at  the  time,  but  I  was  to  learn  later  that  the 
evacuation  of  Eussian  territory  was  one  of  the  stock 
questions.  It  appeared  that  the  evacuation  of  all  Eus- 
sian territory  also  had  been  agreed  to  as  one  of  the 
Fourteen  Points,  and  that  in  view  of  landings  of  En- 
tente troops  in  Arkangel  and  Odessa  the  evacuation 
seemed  to  have  become  rather  crab-like.  Paris  re- 
sounded with  appeals  for  and  against  evacuation. 
There  were  members  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  who 
professed  to  receive  reports  from  soviet  Eussia  that 
everything  was  going  well  and  that  the  Allied  troops 
might  better  be  withdrawn.  There  were  other  groups 
in  Paris,  both  French  and  Eussian,  who  were  keeping 
the  printing-presses  busy  turning  out  stories  of  the 
most  horrible  atrocities  committed  by  the  Bolsheviki, 
and  who  demanded  that  the  Allies  send  a  great  army 
against  soviet  Eussia  at  once.  Meanwhile  from  across 
the  seas  echoed  the  speeches  of  senators  and  congress- 
men in  Washington  who  wanted  to  know  when  the 
boys  were  coming  home. 

It  was  clear  that  point  six  of  the  fourteen  was  some- 
what frost-bitten,  though  there  was  still  time  for  the 
application  of  first-aid  measures  before  the  conference 
opened.  Perhaps  by  then  the  points  we  had  discussed 
and  any  of  the  rest  that  might  be  ailing  would  be  able 
to  sit  up  and  take  nourishment.  I  expressed  my  views 
to  a  friend. 

''  If  the  conference  does  n't  make  peace  on  the  basis 
of  the  Fourteen  Points,"  I  said,  ''  what  in  the  name  of 
Talleyrand  will  it  do  ?  " 

"  Maybe  it  will  fall  back  on  the  ten  commandments/' 


16  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

he  said.  "  But  whatever  it  does,  it  will  put  the 
rollers  under  the  Germans.  That 's  what  we  're  here 
for.'' 

The  meeting  broke  up  at  this  moment,  and  the  men 
prepared  to  pass  out.  We  stopped  for  a  moment  to 
shake  hands  with  Henry  White,  one  of  the  members 
of  the  mission  who  found  ample  opportunity  to  make 
use  of  his  powers  of  diplomacy  in  Paris.  Mr.  White 
was  the  oldest  of  the  American  commissioners,  being 
sixty-eight,  but  at  that  only  three  years  the  senior  of 
General  Bliss.  His  long  service  had  given  him  rich 
backgrounds  and  a  wealth  of  information  that  now  made 
him  invaluable.  He  had  been  ambassador  to  Paris 
and  Rome  and  had  filled  American  diplomatic  posts  in 
London,  Vienna,  Buenos  Aires,  and  Valparaiso.  Just 
as  Louis  XVI  asked  the  representative  of  the  United 
States  in  Paris  to  guard  his  personal  interests  when 
the  French  Revolution  broke  out,  so  Mr.  White  was 
one  of  those  who  had  been  called  upon  during  the 
Franco-Prussian  War  and  the  Paris  Commune  to  help 
represent  the  diplomatic  interests  of  Prussia  and  to 
do  kindly  acts  for  France,  and  I  recall  the  anecdotes 
of  how  he  and  the  little  staff  at  the  American  em- 
bassy of  that  day,  in  humble  quarters  and  under- 
manned, as  always,  were  besieged  by  the  throngs  of 
German  citizens  who  had  been  caught  in  Paris  by 
the  war  and  who  clamored  for  passports  and  papers 
giving  them  a  safe  conduct  home.  He  was  in  Paris 
when  France  signed  the  ignominious  preliminary 
peace  at  Versailles  in  1871,  at  a  time  when  he  could 
hardly  have  suspected  the  part  he  was  to  play  in  an- 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  17 

other  peace  at  Versailles  many  years  later.  Mr.  White 
had  also  represented  America  at  the  Algeciras  Confer- 
ence, and  this  proved  an  advantage  to-day,  for  it  turned 
out  that  France  asked  a  revision  of  the  act  of  Algeciras 
at  the  Peace  Conference,  and  this  was  finally  included 
in  the  terms  -of  peace. 

We  passed  out  of  the  anteroom  and  into  the  corri- 
dors of  the  Crillon.  We  met  old  friends  and  made  new 
ones.  There  was  a  buzz  of  talk  on  all  sorts  of  topics; 
publicity,  the  Fourteen  Points,  what  France  wants,  what 
Italy  w^ants.  Already  the  Peace  Conference  was  tak- 
ing on  the  aspect  of  an  American  political  convention. 
I  felt  that  the  other  men,  like  myself,  were  having  diffi- 
culty in  ^^  orientation,"  that  w^onderful  European  word. 
At  the  foot  of  the  stairs  I  met  John  T.  McCutcheon. 

"  We  were  there  at  the  start  and  now  we  're  here  at  the 
finish,"  said  Mr.  McCutcheon.  "  Is  n't  it  a  wonderful 
time  ?  " 

Then  we  passed  out  of  the  Crillon  and  formed  a  little 
group  under  the  dark  stone  arcades  of  the  ancient  man- 
sion. Some  one  was  imparting  more  inside  informa- 
tion. 

An  American  soldier  approached.  Unlike  the 
doughboys  in  Paris,  he  wore  the  wide-brimmed  felt 
hat  that  the  boys  at  the  front  discarded  for  the  over- 
seas cap.  A  big  revolver  hung  loosely  from  his  belt, 
and  there  was  a  blue  band  around  his  sleeve  bearing 
the  letters  "  M.P."  He  was  the  first  military  police- 
man I  had  seen  in  Paris.  We  looked  at  him  curiously, 
and  he  looked  back  at  us.  Then  he  made  a  quick  ges- 
ture. 


18  THE  FOURTEE:^^  POINTS 

"  Move  on  1  "  lie  said.     "  Don't  stand  around  here !  " 
No,  this  was  not  New  York  or  Chicago,  but  Paris  in 
the  year  of  the  great  peace. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Place  de  la  Concorde  and  the  Quai  d'Orsay  on  a  sunny- 
January  morning  —  I  become  interested  in  the  last  word  of  kings 
and  the  balance  of  power. 

Beyond  the  arcades  of  the  Hotel  de  Crillon  the  Jan- 
uary sun  was  shining  down  on  the  broad  pavements 
of  the  Place  de  la  Concorde  as  if  it  were  a  morning  in 
May.  A  big  brown  touring-car  marked  with  the  nu- 
merals of  the  American  Army  turned  a  semicircle  and 
drew  up  before  the  hotel.  A  well-groomed  man  in  the 
long  blue  ulster  of  the  navy,  with  a  wealth  of  gold 
braid  on  his  cap,  stepped  briskly  out  and  passed  into 
the  hotel. 

"  Xot  a  bad  pose,"  said  a  voice  behind  me,  and  I 
turned  to  see  a  photographer  in  the  uniform  of  the 
Signal  Corps  folding  up  the  tripod  of  a  motion-picture 
camera. 

"  Who  was  that  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Grayson,"  he  replied,  ^^  Rear-Admiral  Grayson. 
Keeps  a  man  busy  watching  for  the  gold  braids  nowa- 
days," he  added. 

"  Then  you  do  this  all  the  time  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Pretty  often,"  he  answered.  ^'  You  see,  we  hav^ 
to  get  all  the  big  boys  for  the  government  records.  So 
I  'm  working  in  Paris  now.  Was  up  at  Coblenz  last 
week  and  tool^  ^  lot  of  army  pictures.     Come  on  out 

18 


20  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

to  Vincennes  some  time  and  see  the  American  plant. 
We  're  with  Path-ay  Freres,"  he  added. 

''  Thanks/'  I  replied. 

A  score  or  more  motor-cars  were  parked  in  front  of 
the  Crillon  like  yachts  in  a  harbor.  One  of  them  car- 
ried on  its  wind-shield  a  red  card  with  four  white  stars, 
the  insignia  of  an  American  general.  Diminutive  Paris 
taxicabs  were  hooting  their  way  across  the  'place.  I 
picked  my  way  carefully  among  them,  and  sought  refuge 
on  an  ^'  island." 

From  their  mighty  seats  the  eight  dowagers  in  stone 
who  represented  the  great  cities  of  France  looked  im- 
passively down  on  the  place.  Strasburg,  decorated  for 
well  nigh  half  a  century  with  mourning  garlands,  sat 
unadorned,  now  that  she  had  been  gathered  back  into 
the  fold.  Below  them,  almost  wheel  to  wheel,  were 
ranged  hundreds  of  guns  that  once  had  been  the  pride 
of  the  house  of  Friedrich  Krupp.  At  the  first  glance 
they  seemed  a  most  impressive  proof  of  the  victory  of 
the  Allied  arms;  then  the  eye  tired  of  these  rust-cov- 
ered breeches  and  shattered  barrels,  and  the  whole  collec- 
tion looked  more  like  a  gigantic  junk-pile.  The  obelisk 
had  a  cordon  of  heavy  mortars  and  tall  marine  rifles; 
on  every  available  spot  stood  broken  77's,  the  German 
imitation  of  the  French  75's.  Rolled  back  against  the 
stone  balustrades  were  cannon  of  all  caliber,  every 
conceivable  kind  of  formidable  weapon,  including  the 
tank  Elfriede.  Some  of  the  guns  still  bore  splotches  of 
green  and  tan  paint  for  camouflage,  but  most  of  them 
had  accumulated  a  thick  coating  of  rust,  and  their 
weight  had  caused  the  wheels  to  sink  deep  into  the  as- 


THE  rOUETEEN  POINTS  21 

phalt  pavement.  Boys  were  clambering  over  the  heavier 
mortars,  trying  to  operate  the  mechanism;  a  post-card- 
vender  came  forward  with  his  twenty-five  inevitable 
views  of  Paris.  I  walked  carefully  across  the  place  to 
the  obelisk  that  had  come  from  Egypt  in  days  when 
self-determination  was  not  yet  heard  of. 

Two  doughboys  on  leave  were  minutely  examining 
a  tall  marine  rifle  that  had  been  cast  in  Essen.  One 
of  them  wore  the  colors  of  the  rainbow  in  the  segment 
of  a  circle  on  his  left  shoulder,  the  insignia  of  the  42d 
Division.  The  other  wore  the  mark  of  the  T7th,  the 
Statue  of  Liberty  in  white  on  a  blue  background. 

"  Looks  as  if  they  'd  fired  that  bird  for  the  last 
time/'  said  the  first  doughboy,  ''  but  I  guess  it  did 
enough  damage  in  its  day." 

^'  There 's  some  writing  on  the  barrel,"  said  the 
other ;  '^  there  's  a  crown  and  a  monogram."  He  scru- 
tinized it  carefully.  "  W  —  II,"  that 's  what  it  is. 
That  must  be  for  William  the  Second.  And  then 
there  's  some  more.  '  U-l-t-i-m-a  R-a-t-io  R-e-g-u-m/  " 
he  spelled  out  slowly. 

A  visiting-car d-from  the  War  Lord !  "  The  last  word 
of  kings,"  the  motto  that  Louis  XIV  caused  to  be  en- 
graved upon  his  guns  in  the  days  when  war  was  still 
the  pastime  of  the  autocrat.  And  here  it  was  encount- 
ered again  in  Louis'  old  capital,  but  this  time  as  a 
memento  of  the  last  king  who  had  dared  use  this 
argument.  It  was  pleasant  to  speculate  that  its  pres- 
ence here  proved  that  the  word  of  the  people  had  been 
of  more  weight  than  the  last  word  of  the  king.  It  was, 
so  to  speak,  the  conclusive  evidence  of  failure. 


22  THE  ADVE:NrTURES  OF 

Truly  today  the  Place  de  la  Concorde  was  the  very 
hub  of  the  great  wheel  that  encompassed  all  the  activi- 
ties of  the  conference.  It  was  a  strange  coincidence  that 
this  square,  which  had  witnessed  such  remarkable 
scenes  in  an  earlier  convulsion  of  the  peoples,  should 
again  be  the  center  of  a  momentous  event  in  the  history 
not  only  of  France,  but  of  the  whole  world.  Both  the 
tragedies  of  1792-93  and  the  deliberations  of  1919 
had  their  place  in  the  struggle  of  the  peoples  toward 
m.ore  democratic  government,  and  none  could  say  but 
that  this  Peace  Conference  might  prove  the  more  sig- 
nificant event  of  the  two.  Certainly  it  opened  most 
auspiciously;  surely  both  in  Europe,  in  America,  and 
in  the  more  remote  parts  of  the  earth  men  who  as- 
pired to  a  greater  measure  of  liberty  and  freedom 
looked  toward  it  with  eager,  longing  eyes. 

It  is  easy  to  touch  hands  with  the  past.  Here  on 
January  21,  1793,  Louis  XVI  gave  up  his  life  that  the 
wrath  of  the  people  might  be  appeased.  Close  your 
eyes  as  you  stand  here  and  you  can  see  the  tumbrels 
laden  with  the  condemned  coming  slowly  toward  the 
'place.  Those  very  buildings  that  are  so  distinctly  a 
feature  of  the  square,  the  hotels  de  Crillon  and  de 
Coislen,  and  the  ministry  of  marine,  dating  from  1770, 
stood  there  then  as  they  stand  to-day,  and  the  Greek 
fagade  of  the  Madeleine  looked  down  upon  the  tum- 
brels as  they  turned  into  the  Rue  Royale  from  the  Rue 
St.  Honore  just  as  to-day  it  still  completes  the  picture 
at  the  end  of  this  street.  N'ear  this  obelisk,  too,  was 
placed  the  guillotine.  Those  terraces  and  gardens  to 
the  east  are  the  Tuileries  Gardens,  where  the  Bourbon 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  23 

princes  played,  and  within  their  confines  was  the 
Manege,  or  riding-school,  where  met  both  the  Constit- 
uent Assembly  and  the  National  Convention,  and  where 
the  republic  was  proclaimed  on  September  21,  1792. 
There  is  not  a  street  or  by-path  within  a  stone's  throw 
of  this  place  that  cannot  tell  a  tale  of  the  Revolution 
or  of  the  First  Empire  or  of  the  Commune  of  1871. 

And  to-day  the  activity  of  the  conference  centers 
here.  Follow  the  Eue  de  Eivoli,  and  it  is  but  a  step  to 
the  Hotel  Continental,  where  the  Prince  of  the  Hedjaz 
lives  with  his  suite;  to  the  Hotel  Lotti,  on  the  Eue 
Castiglione,  where  the  Belgian  delegation  has  its  head- 
quarters ;  to  the  Place  Vendome,  where  the  Hotel  Bris- 
tol houses  the  Japanese  delegation,  while  royalty  stops 
down  at  the  Eitz ;  to  the  Meurice,  headquarters  of  the 
single,  solitary,  and  unrecognized  envoy  of  Montenegro. 

The  noble  Avenue  des  Champs-Elysees  stretches  out 
to  the  west  until  it  reaches  the  arch  of  triumph  at  the 
Place  de  I'Etoile.  Great  chains  that  hang  across  the 
front  of  the  arch  are  still  unbroken,  waiting  upon  the 
men  who  have  met  here  to  fashion  a  treaty  of  peace,  for 
not  until  peace  is  signed  may  the  soldiers  of  France 
pass  under  the  arch.  This  great  avenue  and  its  trib- 
utary streets  also  bear  evidence  of  conference  activities. 
Close  at  hand,  not  far  from  the  Place  de  la  Concorde, 
are  the  British  embassy  and  the  Elysee  Palace,  where 
lives  the  President  of  the  French  Eepublic.  Just  be- 
yond the  Grand  and  Petit  Palais  is  the  Avenue  Mon- 
taigne. The  committee  on  public  information  has 
been  occupying  ^  house  there,  and  a  short  distance  be- 
yond, toward  the  Seine,  is  the  Plaza  Athenee  hotel, 


24  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

which  is  used  by  delegations  from  two  distant  lands, 
Brazil  and  Liberia.  At  Xo.  77  of  the  Avenue  des 
Champs-Elysees  is  the  headquarters  of  the  Kumanian 
delegation;  No.  80  is  the  luxurious  Maison  Dufayel, 
built  by  a  picturesque  Parisian  nouveau-riche  merchant 
for  his  home,  and  now  leased  by  the  Erench  Govern- 
ment for  the  use  of  the  newspaper  men  of  the  world  as 
a  club.  The  American  Army  occupies  the  Hotel  des 
Champs-Ely  sees,  and  close  by  the  arch  is  the  Hotel  As- 
toria, which,  with  the  Hotel  Majestic,  constitutes  the 
headquarters  of  the  British  delegation.  Serbia  and 
Portugal  have  found  quarters  on  the  Avenue  de  Eried- 
land,  not  far  distant,  and  the  Polish  delegation  is  at 
11  Avenue  Kleber.  It  is  in  this  neighborhood,  too,  in 
an  obscure  hotel  on  a  side  street,  where  the  rooms  have 
iron  beds  and  old,  cast-off  furniture,  that  the  spokes- 
men for  Armenia  send  forth  their  appeals  for  the  inde- 
pendence of  their  martyred  homeland. 

I  left  the  Place  de  la  Concorde  and  proceeded  across 
the  bridge  over  the  Seine  to  the  opposite  bank.  The 
river  was  high  this  month,  the  trees  along  its  banks 
were  in  water  half-way  up  their  trunks,  and  the  swift 
current  rushed  with  a  subdued  roar  under  the  arches. 
Stones  of  the  Bastille  are  in  those  arches,  which  have 
withstood  the  ravages  of  the  flood  for  well  over  one 
hundred  years.  Opposite  the  bridge  is  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies,  where  the  government  orators  make  re- 
sounding speeches  to  the  deputies,  obscuring  rather  than 
elucidating  their  policies.  And  this  wide  street  is 
known  the  world  over  as  the  Quai  d'Orsay,  a  name  as 
familiar  as  Downing  Street  and  Wilhelmstrasse ;   for 


THE  rOUKTEE:^"  POINTS  25 

one  block  to  the  west,  in  the  direction  of  the  bridge  of 
Alexander  III,  stands  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
which  gives  the  quai  its  significance. 

In  the  history  of  the  conference  this  building  wiU 
always  take  rank  with  the  Palace  of  Versailles.  Here 
the  great  Peace  Conference  of  1919  began;  there  it 
ended.  Eor  this  is  the  seat  of  the  plenary  sessions  and 
of  the  meetings  of  the  council  of  ten,  and  within  its  walls 
gather  many  of  the  subsidiary  commissions,  as  well  as 
the  cabinet  of  the  French  Republic.  It  is  here  also 
that  M.  Stephen  Pichon,  the  adroit  minister  for  foreign 
affairs,  directs  the  external  policies  of  the  French  Re- 
public —  policies  that  have  been  the  most  direct  and 
well  defined  of  any  of  the  Allies  and  have  been  ad- 
hered to  with  hardly  a  variation. 

In  the  course  of  the  conference  I  came  into  close  con- 
tact with  ^I.  Pichon.  He  was  one  of  the  most  accessi- 
ble of  men,  and  in  his  frequent  meetings  with  corre- 
spondents I  used  to  watch  his  clever  manoeuvers  to  hide 
what  he  did  not  wish  to  disclose,  and  yet  give  the  ap- 
pearance that  he  was  -acting  with  perfect  frankness. 
We  used  to  meet  him  in  his  cabinet  de  travail,  close  by 
the  hall  of  the  plenary  sessions.  You  entered  the  room 
by  a  door  that  seemed  set  into  a  wall  fully  two  feet 
thick  —  rather  two  doors  that  were  connected  by  a 
mechanism  and  opened  simultaneously  —  and  when  they 
closed  upon  you,  not  a  sound  reached  you  from  the  room 
without,  nor  were  voices  in  M.  Pichon's  office  audible 
outside.  The  room  itself  was  decorated  sumptuously. 
On  its  walls  hung  reproductions  in  tapestry  of  the 
Rubens  series  of  paintings  on  the  life  of  Maria   de' 


26  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Medici,  works  of  priceless  value.  The  room  seemed  to 
belong  to  an  age  when  a  Richelieu  held  in  his  hand  the 
affairs  of  France.  But  M.  Pichon  was  always  the  dem- 
ocrat. He  never  sought  to  impress,  he  rather  depre- 
cated his  knowledge  of  affairs.  He  described  himself 
as  a  journalist;  in  France  many  men  in  political  office 
have  at  one  time  or  another  written  for,  and  even 
edited,  a  newspaper.  At  this  time  he  was  sixty-two 
years  old  and  was  filling  the  post  of  foreign  minister 
for  the  fourth  term.  Like  his  chief,  the  president  of 
the  council,  M.  Clemenceau,  he  had  long  been  associated 
with  the  public  affairs  of  France,  and  it  was  an  inter- 
esting fact,  though  not  at  all  singular,  that  he  was 
in  Peking  as  the  representative  of  the  French  Re- 
public when  Germany  laid  the  basis  for  obtaining  her 
leasehold  of  Kiao-chau  and  her  concessions  in  Shan- 
tung. 

These  two  men,  M.  Clemenceau,  Premier  of  France 
—  or,  as  the  French  call  him,  president  of  the  council 
of  ministers  —  and  M.  Pichon,  minister  of  foreign  af- 
fairs, had  sounded  the  keynote  of  the  French  position 
at  the  Peace  Conference  just  a  few  days  before  my  ar- 
rival in  Paris.  As  I  looked  over  this  building  and 
thought  of  the  history  that  was  to  be  enacted  there,  my 
mind  ran  back  to  the  significance  of  these  two  speeches 
in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  I  was  in  London  on  De- 
cember 30,  when  they  were  delivered,  and  I  remembered 
that  the  newspapers  quoted  M.  Clemenceau  in  big  black 
type  because  he  had  dealt  with  the  question  of  the 
freedom  of  the  seas.  Later,  in  Paris,  Paul  Scott  Mow- 
rer,  careful  student  of  French  affairs,  directed  my  at- 


THE  fouetee:^  points  2T 

tention  to  them  again,  and  one  evening  at  his  home  he 
went  step  by  step  over  them  and  pointed  out  their  un- 
usual significance. 

M.  Pichon  had  spoken  before  M.  Clemenceau,  and  be- 
cause he  stated  the  French  demands  so  clearly,  I  repeat 
them  here  in  the  order  that  he  gave  them.  They,  as 
much  as  anything,  are  a  key  to  the  whole  French  di- 
plomacy of  the  Peace  Conference.     He  said : 

France  accepts  the  idea  of  the  League  of  Nations. 

France  asks  no  annexations,  except  for  a  rectification  of  the 
Lorraine  frontier.  [This  was  taken  to  mean  the  inclusion  of  the 
Saar  basin  in  the  French  lines.] 

France  asks  the  disarmament  of  all  German  military  establish- 
ments on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  and  for  thirty  kilometers  east 
of  the  right  bank. 

France  asks  full  reparation  for  damages  done,  full  satisfaction, 
and  penalties  for  wrongs  committed. 

France  actively  supports  the  new  states  of  Poland,  Czecho- 
slovakia, and  Jugo  Slavia,  which  she  helped  to  revive. 

France  opposes  the  union  of  German  Austria  with  Germany. 

France  declares  Bulgaria  shall  give  full  satisfaction  to  Serbia, 
Greece,  and  Rumania. 

France  asks  recognition  of  her  interests  in  Syria,  Lebanon, 
Cilicia,  Palestine,  and  Armenia. 

France  asks  a  share  of  the  German  colonies. 

France  asks  that  she  be  given  a  clear  field  in  Morocco  and  that 
any  hampering  conditions  of  the  act  of  Algeciras  be  removed. 

France  supports  the  secret  agreement  with  England  of  1916. 

France  supports  the  policy  of  anti-Bolshevist  elements  in  Rus- 
sia, and  has  landed  a  division  at  Odessa  and  sent  General  Berthe- 
lot  to  reorganize  the  Rumanian  Army.  She  will  endeavor  to  help 
organize  an  offensive  with  purely  Russian  troops. 

France  will  support  full  publicity  for  all  agreements  reached 
by  the  Peace  Conference. 

M.  Clemenceau's  address  was  even  more  significant. 
It  was  in  reality  an  answer  to  an  interpellation  on  the 
policy  of  the  ministry.  M.  Franklin  Bouillon,  chair- 
man of  the  foreign  affairs  commission  and  leader  of  the 


28  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

radical  party,  was  one  of  the  men  who  sought  informa- 
tion on  the  Government's  policies  at  the  conference, 
and  because  the  radical  party  controlled  a  majority 
of  the  votes  in  the  chamber,  his  views  had  weight. 
Ernest  Lafont,  socialist  leader,  was  the  other  speaker, 
and  what  he  said  dealt  principally  with  Russia  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  Socialist  party,  which  consid- 
ered the  Government  to  be  dealing  with  reactionaries. 
To  these  men  M.  Clemenceau  said  in  substance : 

The  question  of  peace  is  a  terrible  question,  one  of  the  most 
diflScult  which  has  been  submitted  to  the  nation. 

In  a  few  days  there  will  meet  in  Paris  a  conference  of  political 
men  who  are  going  to  settle  the  fate  of  nations  of  all  parts  of  the 
world. 

France  is  in  a  particularly  difficult  position.  It  is  the  country 
nearest  Germany. 

America  is  far  away  and  took  time  to  come  in.  Great  Britain 
responded  immediately  to  the  call  of  Mr.  Asquith.  And  during 
this  time  we  toiled  and  suffered  and  fought.  Our  men  were  mown 
down,  our  towns  and  villages  were  destroyed. 

Every  one  agrees  in  saying  that  this  must  not  begin  again. 

France  will  accept  from  an  international  organization,  regarding 
which,  however,  no  light  has  been  shed,  additional  guaranties  for 
France,  especially  if  they  enable  us  to  diminish  the  sacrifices  in- 
curred by  military  preparations. 

There  is  an  old  system  which  seems  to  be  condemned  to-day, 
but  to  which  I  remain  faithful  at  this  moment.  The  nations  are 
organizing  their  defenses  and  are  striving  to  have  good  frontiers 
and  armaments  and  what  is  called  the  balance  of  power. 

The  system  seems  now  to  be  condemned;  but  if  such  a  balance 
of  power  had  preceded  the  war,  if  Great  Britain,  America,  France, 
and  Italy  had  agreed  to  say  that  whoever  attacked  one  of  them 
would  be  attacking  the  whole  world,  this  atrocious  war  would  not 
have  taken  place. 

This  system  of  alliances,  which  I  do  not  renounce,  shall  be  my 
guiding  thought  at  the  conference  if  your  confidence  sends  me  to 
it,  so  that  there  can  be  no  separation  in  peace  of  the  four  powers 
which  have  fought  side  by  side. 

The  balance  of  power ! 


THE  FOUKTEEIT  POINTS  29 

The  phrase  appealed  to  me  as  a  historical  reference. 
It  evoked  images  of  bygone  times.  I  called  up  a  pic- 
ture of  five  men  in  velvet  coats  and  knee-breeches  and 
powdered  wigs  sitting  with  their  heads  close  together 
in  a  little  room  near  the  palace  of  the  Hofburg  in 
Vienna,  cutting  up  a  map  of  the  world  with  a  pair  of 
shears.  They  were  the  progenitors  of  the  balance  of 
power.  I  thought  of  another  picture.  It  was  that  of 
an  army  of  lithe,  sinewy  young  men  in  khaki,  march- 
ing forward  with  swinging  gait  and  a  song  upon  their 
lips.  They  were  crusaders  —  crusaders  against  the 
evil  that  had  been  wrought  by  Europe's  makeshift  sys- 
tem of  political  readjustment.  President  Wilson  had 
spoken  of  them  in  his  scathing  arraignment  of  the  bal- 
ance of  power  at  Manchester  just  a  few  days  before : 

They  fought  to  do  away  with  an  old  order  aad  to  establish  a 
new  one,  and  the  center  and  characteristic  of  the  old  order  was 
that  unstable  thing  which  we  used  to  call  "'  the  balance  of  power," 
a  thing  in  which  the  balance  was  determined  by  the  sword  which 
was  thrown  in  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  a  balance  which  was 
determined  by  the  unstable  equilibrium  of  competitive  interests,  a 
balance  which  was  maintained  by  jealous  watchfulness  and  an  an- 
tagonism of  interests  which,  though  it  was  generally  latent,  was 
always  deep-seated.  The  men  who  have  fought  in  this  war  have 
been  the  men  from  the  free  nations  who  are  determined  that  that 
sort  of  thing  should  end  now  and  forever.  It  is  interesting  to  me 
to  observe  how  from  every  quarter,  from  every  sort  of  mind,  from 
every  concert  of  counsel  there  comes  the  suggestion  that  there 
must  now  be  not  a  balance  of  power,  not  one  powerful  group  of 
nations  set  up  against  another,  but  a  single  overwhelming  powerful 
group  of  nations  who  shall  be  the  trustees  of  the  peace  of  the 
world.  « 

That  was  the  construction  President  Wilson  placed 
upon  the  balance  of  power.  And  yet  almost  at  the 
time  that  he  was  speaking  in  Manchester,  Clemenceau, 


30  THE  ADVENTUEES  OF 

the  "  tiger  "  of  France,  had  addressed  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  in  these  memorable  words : 

"  There  is  an  old  system  much  decried  nowadays  but 
to  which,  I  am  not  afraid  to  say,  I  still  hold,  and  that 
is  the  system  of  the  balance  of  power." 

All  Paris  was  ringing  with  these  w^ords.  xVt  the 
Crillon,  at  the  Astoria,  at  the  French  foreign  office, 
and  in  all  the  numerous  and  complex  bureaus  that  had 
sprung  up  like  mushrooms  in  the  night  around  the  Peace 
Conference,  men  commented  upon  these  two  apparently 
antagonistic  statements  and  speculated  upon  their  im- 
port. Did  they  foreshadow  a  clash  between  the  ideals 
of  the  Kew  World  and  the  practices  of  the  Old  ?  Had 
the  capitulation  of  Europe  to  the  ideas  expressed  in 
President  Wilson's  Fourteen  Points  been  made  with 
mental  reservations,  and  were  the  Fourteen  Points  to  be- 
come an  issue  at  the  peace  table  ?  President  Wilson  had 
proclaimed  them  on  January  18,  1918,  as  the  basis  for 
making  peace ;  Great  Britain  had  accepted  them  with  a 
reservation  and  France  had  given  her  assent.  Italy, 
too,  adhered  to  them;  and  the  other  belligerents,  and 
lastly  Germany,  had  acquiesced  in  their  terms.  The 
last  point  declared  that  the  nations  of  the  earth  must 
join  in  a  league  that  must  guarantee  the  peace  of  the 
world.  Like  an  afterthought  it  had  first  been  pub- 
lished to  the  world;  but  now,  through  the  assiduous 
spreading  of  the  gospel  by  the  President  both  at  home 
and  in  his  speeches  throughout  the  Allied  countries,  it 
had  become  one  of  the  issues  of  the  conference,  and 
for  weeks  men  had  looked  forward  to  this  new  system 
that  should  replace  the  old, 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  31 

"  We  have  the  right,"  said  "  Le  Temps  ''  on  January 
1,  ^^  to  found  peace  on  something  else  than  a  hypothesis. 
Sureties  are  required." 

^'  Peace  will  not  be  real,"  said  ^'  La  Liberte  "  at  the 
same  time,  ''  if  it  does  not  give  France  tranquillity." 

Peace  and  tranquillity  —  those  were  the  ends  men 
sought,  and  to  attain  them  they  used  many  different 
means.  What  would  be  the  outcome  in  Paris  ?  What 
would  the  nations  of  our  own  time  agree  upon  to  keep 
the  peace  of  the  world? 

I  retraced  my  steps  by  the  way  I  had  come  and 
reached  again  the  Place  de  la  Concorde.  The  big  ma- 
rine gun  arrested  my  attention.  Like  a  great  warning 
finger  it  seemed  to  point  skyward.  Would  the  world 
ever  again  have  recourse  to  ''  the  last  word  of  kings  "  I 


CHAPTER  III 

Concerning  the  relative  importance  of  a  peace  conference  and  a 
foot-ball  game,  and  how  it  feels  to  survey  the  great  of  the  earth 
through  a  doorway. 

A  COMPANY  of  buglers  was  drawn  up  just  inside  the 
tall  iron  fence  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs. 
Behind  them  stood  a  guard  of  honor  of  blue-coated 
Poilus.  A  black  limousine  rolled  through  the  open 
gates.  It  contained  a  man  of  smooth-shaven  counte- 
nance, wearing  a  high  silk  hat,  and  two  women.  At  the 
front  of  the  car  flew  a  small  blue  flag,  with  the  Ameri- 
can eagle  embroidered  in  white.  The  man  alighted 
and  walked  up  the  steps  of  the  ministry.  The  buglers 
put  their  instruments  to  their  lips  and  blew  a  fan- 
fare.    The  Poilus  stood  at  salute. 

A  second  limousine  drew  up,  containing  a  man  and 
a  woman.  The  man  had  a  slight,  rotund  figure,  and 
wore  a  white  Vandyke  beard.  Their  car,  too,  flew  a 
flag  —  the  tricolor  of  France.  Again  the  buglers  blew ; 
again  the  Poilus  came  to  a  salute.  From  the  crowd 
outside  the  iron  fence  rose  a  mild,  polite  cheer. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  and  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  French  Republic  had  arrived,  and  the 
greatest  peace  conference  in  the  history  of  the  world 
was  about  to  open.     It  was  January  18,  1919. 

I  stood  outside  the  tall  iron  fence  and  looked  not  at 
32 


THE  FOURTEE]^  POINTS  33 

the  notables  as  they  alighted  within  the  inclosure,  but 
at  the  crowd  that  waited  more  or  less  respectfully  before 
the  gates.  At  most  there  could  not  have  been  more 
than  five  hundred  persons,  men  and  women,  well  at- 
tired, many  probably  business  and  professional  men. 
Here  and  there  American  doughboys  on  leave  leaned 
against  the  plane-trees  and  smoked  cigarettes  com- 
placently. American  girls,  wearing  the  long  blue  capes 
of  the  Y.M.C.A.,  walked  by  in  pairs  and  stopped  to 
scrutinize  the  building.  A  nurse  girl  pushed  her  per- 
ambulator up  and  down  before  the  fence  and  peered 
interestedly  inside  as  if  wondering  what  was  interfering 
with  her  afternoon's  walk  on  the  Quai  d'Orsay.  There 
were  no  demonstrations ;  there  were  no  shouted  com- 
mands to  keep  order;  there  were  no  lines  of  rope  or 
files  of  gendarmes. 

I  had  sat  in  the  rain  with  thirty  thousand  persons 
who  became  hysterical  when  one  man  kicked  a  foot- 
ball across  an  open  field.  I  had  waited  with  countless 
other  thousands  in  the  burning  August  sun  while  two 
aeroplanes  performed  simple  evolutions  overhead.  I 
had  witnessed  one  hundred  thousand  men  on  parade, 
and  I  had  forgotten  what  event  it  was  that  called  them 
forth.  And  1  had  come  to  this  Peace  Conference  in 
Paris  with  the  conviction  that  it  was  perhaps  the  most 
important  gathering  of  influential  men  in  one  hundred 
years,  that  it  would  affect  the  fortune  of  hundreds  of 
millions  of  white,  black,  and  yellow  men,  and  lay  the 
foundations  for  the  future  development  of  half  a  world. 
'No  wonder  that  the  crowd  arrayed  on  the  Quai  d'Orsay 
this  January  afternoon  disappointed  me  by  its  size, 


34  THE  ADVENTURES  OE 

Yet  the  error  in  judgment  was  mine,  and  the  public 
had  followed  only  its  natural  impulse.  Paris  would  go 
to  the  races  at  Longchamps  by  tens  of  thousands  to 
share  in  the  exhilaration  of  a  contest,  but  because  the 
plenary  session  offered  nothing  more  than  a  glimpse  of 
two  score  or  more  men  in  ulsters  and  top-hats  alighting 
from  automobiles,  Paris  remained  at  home,  where  it 
could  debate  the  decisions  of  the  conference  at  leisure. 
The  mental  reaction  which  the  conference  afforded 
Paris  would  get  from  its  newspapers,  from  the  speeches 
in  public,  and  from  the  eventual  "  big  scene  "  —  the 
signing  of  the  treaty  of  peace. 

While  I  was  standing  outside  the  ministry  Baukhage 
of  the  "  Stars  and  Stripes  "  came  up. 

'^  Going  in  ?  "  asked  Baukhage. 

"  I  think  I  will,"  I  replied. 

^'  I  hear  they  are  very  strict  about  admitting  any 
one,"  said  Baukhage.     "  Have  you  a  pass  ?  " 

"  Nothing  but  my  card  of  identification,"  I  replied. 

"  Well,  maybe  I  've  got  a  meal-ticket  about  me,"  said 
Baukhage.     "  Let 's  try  it." 

There  are  two  formal  entrances  to  the  Ministry  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  one  at  each  end  of  the  f agade  that  faces 
the  Seine.  The  entrance  toward  the  west  was  for  the 
delegates  to  the  conference;  the  one  to  the  east  for  the 
press.  We  took  the  latter  door.  The  pleasant  young 
man  who  had  guarded  the  anteroom  of  the  American 
mission  at  the  Hotel  de  Crillon  was  there;  he  nodded, 
and  we  passed  inside. 

Who  should  and  who  should  not  enter  the  sacrosanct 
quarters  of  the  Peace  Conference  had  been  debated  for 


THE  FOUKTEElSr  POINTS  35 

several  weeks  before  this  session,  and  this  despite  the 
fact  that  the  first  of  the  Fourteen  Points  on  which  the 
Allies,  the  associated  powers,  and  the  enemy  had  agreed 
to  sign  the  armistice  declared  unreservedly  for  "  open 
covenants  openly  arrived  at."  When  the  conference 
was  about  to  open  and  it  was  learned  that  the  world 
would  be  shut  out  from  the  deliberations,  there  was  a 
great  wave  of  protest,  but  it  seemed  to  have  no  effect 
on  the  leaders  of  the  four  great  powers.  The  news- 
paper men  immediately  made  publicity  an  issue  of  their 
own;  the  Americans  sent  resolutions  of  protest  to  the 
President  and  to  the  American  mission ;  the  British 
placed  their  protests  in  the  hands  of  Sir  George  Riddell 
for  action ;  Italian,  Belgian,  French,  and  Serbian  news- 
paper men  took  exceptions  to  the  rule.  The  result  was 
an  announcement  by  the  chiefs  of  the  conference  that 
although  the  detailed  work  would  have  to  be  done  in 
private,  plenary  sessions  would  be  held  from  time  to 
time,  at  which  the  larger  results  of  the  work  would  be 
acted  upon  and  to  which  the  press  would  be  admitted. 
M.  Clemenceau,  who  was  pointed  out  as  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal opponents  to  publicity,  made  an  explanation  of  his 
stand  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  the  day  before  the 
opening  session.  He  said  that  publicity  for  debates  was 
generally  favored,  but  that  there  was  one  point  on  which 
secrecy  must  be  observed.  It  must  not  be  said  that  the 
head  of  one  government  had  put  forward  a  proposal  that 
was  opposed  by  the  head  of  another  government.  It 
was  essential  that  the  decisions  of  the  conference  as  a 
whole  should  go  forth  as  agreed  upon  unanimously,  de- 
spite  the   "  friendly   discussion "   that   might  precede 


36  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

them.  It  turned  out  later  that  even  the  leaders  were 
unable  to  keep  the  world  in  ignorance.  Delegates  with 
a  grievance  were  only  too  glad  to  give  interviews  and 
information  anonymously  in  order  to  influence  public 
opinion  in  their  behalf,  so  that  despite  the  alleged  pre- 
cautions and  the  reports  of  secrecy,  everything  the  con- 
ference did  sooner  or  later  saw  the  light  of  day. 

We  passed  through  several  rooms,  and  then  into  a 
long  gallery  which  looked  out  upon  the  garden  of  the 
ministry  through  high  double  windows  on  one  side,  and 
on  the  other  had  three  large  doorways  in  which  hung 
portieres  of  heavy,  wine-colored  damask.  The  room 
was  already  filled  with  men,  and  most  of  them,  standing 
on  chairs  and  tables,  were  trying  to  look  through  the 
three  doorways  into  the  room  beyond,  a  hazardous  feat 
not  at  all  easy,  and  which  led  to  much  jostling  and 
many  expressions  of  disappointment  and  disgust. 
These  men  represented  the  world  outside  the  Peace 
Conference ;  these  three  doorways  were  the  windows 
through  which  they  were  to  be  permitted  to  view  the 
august  personages  in  session,  and  through  which  they 
were  to  be  allowed  to  hear,  if  they  could,  the  discourses 
that  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  rulers. 

The  hall  beyond  was  the  Salon  de  Vhorloge,  the  hall 
of  the  clock,  a  room  of  which  the  imperialists  had  been 
unusually  proud  in  the  reign  of  Louis  Napoleon,  but 
which  went  badly  with  the  professed  aims  of  a  body  of 
democratic  leaders.  The  ministry  was  not  an  old 
building, —  it  had  been  erected  in  1853, —  but  the  Bour- 
bons at  Versailles  never  perpetrated  greater  decorative 
banalities  than  those  contained  within  this  room.     The 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  37 

carpets  and  hangings  were  from  Gobelin's;  there  was 
enough  marble  and  white  enamel  and  gold  leaf  to  sat- 
isfy the  average  middle-class  appetite  for  imperial  trap- 
pings. On  the  large  white  marble  mantel  was  the  mar- 
ble clock  which  gave  the  room  its  name;  above  rose  a 
statue  of  Liberty  holding  a  torch,  which  bore  the  signa- 
ture, "  Pollett,  I860.''  Amid  these  gorgeous  surround- 
ings democracy  had  come  to  dictate  peace. 

Through  one  of  the  doorways  I  watched  the  leaders 
as  they  took  their  seats:  President  Poincare  at  the 
head  of  the  big  U-shaped  table ;  President  Wilson  at  his 
right,  in  the  neat  attire  of  the  American  business  man ; 
on  the  other  side  of  the  President  of  Prance,  Lloyd 
George,  Balfour,  and  Bonar  Law.  The  American  mis- 
sion sat  at  the  right  of  President  Wilson,  facing  the 
assemblage,  with  the  exception  of  Colonel  House,  who 
was  absent  through  illness.  Beyond  the  Americans, 
and  at  right  angles  to  them,  came  the  French  delegates, 
M.  Clemenceau,  the  most  powerful  member  of  the  group, 
looking  more  like  a  bulldog  than  a  tiger;  M.  Pichon; 
Marshal  Foch,  a  man  with  a  handsome,  kindly  face,  and 
the  firm  lips  of  a  great  leader ;  M.  Klotz,  M.  Tardieu, 
and  M.  Jules  Cambon.  Then  came  the  representatives 
of  Italy;  Sonnino,  Salvago-Kaggi,  Premier  Orlando, 
Salandra,  and  Barzilai ;  and  corresponding  to  their  posi- 
tion, on  the  other  side  of  the  hall,  the  representatives 
of  the  British  dominions  and  the  delegates  from  Japan, 
the  latter  including  the  Marquis  Saionyi,  Baron  Makino, 
Viscount  Chinda,  M.  Matsui,  and  M.  Ijuin.  These 
completed  the  major  powers,  for  it  had  been  decreed 
that  Great  Britain,  the  United  States,  France,  Italy, 


38  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

and  Japan  should  have  five  delegates  each,  and  the 
British  dominions  two  each  for  Australia,  Canada, 
South  Africa,  and  India,  and  one  for  Xew  Zealand. 
Long  hours  had  been  spent  in  the  allocation  of  seats, 
and  much  importance  was  attached  to  them,  and  it  might 
well  be  said  that  a  nation  could  gage  its  own  rank  and 
position  in  the  world  by  the  treatment  accorded  its  rep- 
resentatives at  the  conference.  The  result  had  not  been 
accepted  without  protests,  and  I  could  well  imagine  that 
there  were  heart-burnings  even  now  among  many  of 
the  able  statesmen  who  had  come  to  Paris  as  repre- 
sentatives of  nations  not  classed  as  major  powers. 

Three  seats  each  had  been  given  to  Belgium  and  Ser- 
bia for  their  martyrdom  in  the  war,  and  to  Brazil  in 
recognition  of  its  important  place  in  South  America. 
Two  had  been  given  China,  Greece,  the  King  of  the 
Hedjaz,  Poland,  Portugal,  Eumania,  Siam,  Serbia  and 
the  Czecho-Slovak  republic.  One  seat  each  had  been 
given  Cuba,  Guatemala,  Haiti,  Honduras,  Liberia,  N^ic- 
aragua,  and  Panama.  The  five  great  powers  were  des- 
ignated ''  belligerent  powers  with  general  interests,'' 
which  were  entitled  to  take  part  in  all  sittings  and  com- 
missions. The  others  were  called  ^^  belligerent  powers 
with  special  interests,"  and  were  expected  to  take  part 
only  in  sittings  at  which  questions  affecting  them  were 
discussed.  In  addition  one  seat  each  was  granted  to 
Bolivia,  Ecuador,  Peru,  and  LTruguay,  which  were  called 
^'  powers  in  a  state  of  diplomatic  rupture  with  the  en- 
emy," and  also  were  expected  to  appear  only  at  sittings 
which  specially  concerned  them. 

There  was  definite  objection  to  the  allotment  of  some 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  39 

of  the  seats.  For  instance,  the  newly  organized  Jugo 
Slav  kingdom,  which  professed  to  have  incorporated 
Montenegro,  was  not  recognized  by  the  conference ;  but 
Serbia  was  granted  seats,  and  Montenegro  was  prom- 
ised one  representative,  who  should  take  his  place  when 
the  political  situation  in  Montenegro  had  been  cleared 
up.  King  Nicholas,  who  had  been  an  exile  in  Paris  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  war,  declared  that  the  Serbs 
had  taken  advantage  of  his  absence  and  occupied  his 
country  by  force,  and  Italy  sustained  his  contention. 
The  "French  press  inquired  why  seats  had  not  been 
awarded  to  Morocco,  Tunis,  and  Algeria,  when  the  Brit- 
ish dominions  were  represented  by  nine  delegates.  The 
Russians  in  Paris  were  plainly  nonplussed  because  they 
were  not  asked  to  act  for  the  former  Russian  Empire ; 
but  the  heads  of  the  British,  American,  French,  and 
Italian  delegations,  who  arranged  the  procedure  of  the 
conference,  were  not  convinced  that  these  men  possessed 
a  mandate  from  the  Russian  people.  Despite  this,  the 
Russian  embassy  in  Paris  became  the  headquarters  of 
a  working  committee  of  the  three  anti-Bolshevist  gov- 
ernments represented  here  —  that  of  Omsk,  for  which 
Prince  Lvoff  was  the  spokesman ;  that  of  Ekaterinodar, 
for  which  M.  Sazonoif,  minister  of  foreign  affairs  under 
the  czar,  appeared;  and  that  of  Archangel,  represented 
by  M.  Tchaikovsky.  Yet  Russia  was  not  represented 
in  any  of  the  negotiations  leading  up  to  the  treaty  of 
peace  with  Germany. 

One  needed  only  to  glance  over  this  assembly  of  men 
to  become  impressed  with  the  tremendous  changes 
brought   about  by  the   upheaval   of  the   World  War. 


40  THE  adve:^tukes  of 

There  sat  an  American  President,  one  of  the  dominat- 
ing factors  of  a  European  conference.  For  the  first 
time,  too,  the  self-governing  dominions  of  the  British 
Empire  were  represented,  for  the  most  part  by  their 
prime  ministers,  as  Sir  Robert  Borden  for  Canada, 
W.  M.  Hughes  for  Australia,  and  W.  F.  Massey 
for  jSFew  Zealand.  The  delegates  from  India,  the 
Maharaja  Ganga  Singh  and  Sir  S.  P.  Sinha  lent  a 
picturesque  touch  to  the  assembly  by  their  colorful 
costumes.  For  the  first  time,  too,  Hedjaz,  the  Arabian 
kingdom  ruled  by  Hussein,  Sherif  of  Mecca,  was  rep- 
resented. Near  by  the  quiet,  self-possessed  Mongolian 
delegates  gave  proof  of  the  tremendous  changes  that 
had  come  about  in  the  Orient,  while  the  seat  reserved 
for  Liberia  indicated  that  the  black  man,  who  had  been 
recognized  as  a  human  being  only  after  great  argument 
at  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  had  gained  admittance  to  the 
most  august  political  body  in  the  world  in  the  course 
of  one  hundred  years. 

When  the  conference  was  formally  opened,  it  was  al- 
most as  if  the  board  of  directors  of  a  corporation  had 
agreed  to  sit  down  and  talk  of  business  affairs,  there 
was  so  little  ostentation  about  it  all.  The  President  of 
France  rose,  and  read  his  address  from  manuscript, 
naming  each  of  the  states  represented  at  the  conference 
by  name  and  speaking  of  the  work  that  each  had  ac- 
complished in  the  war,  giving  special  attention  to  the 
fact  that  ^'  America,  the  daughter  of  Europe,  crossed 
the  ocean  to  wrest  her  mother  from  the  humiliation  of 
thraldom  and  to  save  civilization.  .  .  .  The  interven- 
tion of  the  United  States  was  something  more,  some- 


tf    .5 


5    S^ 


2   O 

«  M 
^^ 
«*,  0) 
OT3 

fee 

TO    <» 


THE  fouetee:^  poi:n"ts  41 

thing  greater,  than  a  great  political  and  military  event. 
It  was  the  supreme  judgment  passed  at  the  bar  of  his- 
tory by  the  lofty  conscience  of  a  free  people  and  their 
chief  magistrate  on  the  enormous  responsibilities  in- 
curred in  the  frightful  conflict  which  was  lacerating  hu- 
manity." He  spoke  in  a  careful,  concise  Gallic  sum- 
mary of  the  League  of  Nations  that  these  men  had  deter- 
mined to  establish : 

You  do  not  intend  this  international  association  to  be  directed 
against  anybody  in  future;  it  will  not  of  set  purpose  shut  out  any- 
body: but,  having  been  organized  by  the  nations  that  have  sacri- 
ficed themselves  in  defense  of  right,  it  would  receive  from  them 
its  statutes  and  fundamental  rules;  it  will  lay  down  conditions  to 
which  its  present  or  future  adherents  will  submit,  and,  as  it  is  to 
have  for  its  essential  aim  to  prevent  so  far  as  possible  the  renewal 
of  wars,  it  will,  above  all,  seek  to  gain  respect  for  the  peace 
which  you  will  have  established,  and  will  find  it  less  difficult  to 
maintain  in  proportion  as  this  peace  will  in  itself  imply  greater 
realities  of  justice  and  safer  guaranties  of  stability. 

But  perhaps  no  sentence  spoken  by  the  French  Pres- 
ident reached  its  mark  so  quickly  as  this: 

This  very  day,  forty-eight  years  ago,  on  the  eighteenth  of 
January,  1871,  the  German  Empire  was  proclaimed  by  an  army 
of  invasion  in  the  Chateau  at  Versailles.  It  was  consecrated  by 
the  theft  of  two  French  provinces.  It  was  thus  vitiated  from  its 
origin,  and  by  the  fault  of  its  founders.  Born  in  injustice,  it  has 
ended  in  opprobrium.  You  are  assembled  in  order  to  repair  the 
evil  that  it  has  done  and  to  prevent  a  recurrence  of  it.  You 
hold  in  your  hands  the  future  of  the  world. 

What  happened  then  was  another  proof  of  the  chang- 
ing world.  President  Poincare  had  spoken  in  French ; 
Lieutenant  Mantoux  now  rose  and  read  the  president's 
speech  in  English.  It  came  about  later  that  men  spoke 
also  first  in  English  and  that  their  address  was  then 


42  THE  ADVENTUEES  OF 

translated  into  French.  A  new  language  for  diplomatic 
intercourse  had  won  equal  honors  with  that  which  was 
recognized  as  essential  throughout  centuries. 

When  M.  Poincare's  speech  had  been  read,  the  Presi- 
dent rose  and  the  conference  rose  with  him,  and  stood 
until  he  had  left  the  hall.  And  then  a  quick,  nervous 
little  man  slipped  from  his  place  among  the  French 
delegates  to  the  chair  that  M.  Poincare  had  just  va- 
cated. He  had  bright  little  eyes  that  shifted  now  this 
way,  now  that;  his  head  was  bent  forward  as  if  to  get 
closer  to  the  object  of  his  scrutiny,  and  the  expression 
on  his  face  led  one  to  think  that  he  had  a  remarkable 
witticism  in  reserve  and  meant  to  tell  it  at  the  first 
opportunity.  It  was  M.  Clemenceau,  come  to  act  as 
chairman  while  the  Conference  effected  its  organization. 

Both  President  Wilson  and  Mr.  Lloyd  George  spoke 
extemporaneously  on  behalf  of  making  M.  Clemenceau 
permanent  chairman  of  the  Conference,  the  former 
in  his  quiet,  scholarly  manner;  the  latter  with  a  good 
deal  of  emphasis,  and  with  a  merry  twinkle  in  his 
eyes,  calling  the  premier  "  the  grand  young  man  of 
France,"  a  phrase  that  proved  a  puzzle  even  for  Lieu- 
tenant Mantoux  when  he  came  to  translate  it  into 
French,  for  '*"  le  grand  jeune  homme  de  la  France  " 
fails  to  convey  the  signification  in  French  that  this 
phrase  has  in  English.  When  you  looked  at  M.  Clem- 
enceau you  felt  that  he  must  be  a  very  old  man ;  in  fact, 
his  old-fashioned,  round  white  cuffs  and  his  gray  silk 
gloves  seemed  to  put  him  back  into  the  seventies  and 
eighties  of  the  last  century,  but  w'hen  he  laughed  and 
nodded  his  head  vigorously,  you  knew  that  he  was  ex- 


THE  FOUETEEiT  POINTS  43 

actlj  as  young  in  mind  and  spirit  as  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
said  he  was.  And  after  Baron  Sonnino  had  seconded 
the  nomination  on  behalf  of  Italy,  M.  Clemenceau  rose 
and  put  the  question,  and,  hearing  no  nays,  made  a 
short,  rattling  speech.  In  fact,  it  sounded  a  great  deal 
as  if  a  schoolmaster  were  admonishing  his  pupils,  for  he 
spoke  in  short,  sharp  sentences,  flinging  his  phrases  at 
his  audience  in  a  businesslike  monotone,  refusing  to 
adopt  the  postures  or  the  inflections  of  the  conventional 
French  orator.  M.  Clemenceau  presided  at  the  elec- 
tion of  a  vice-president  for  each  of  the  five  great  powers, 
and  announced  the  order  of  the  day :  first,  responsibili- 
ties of  the  authors  of  the  war;  second,  punishment  of 
crimes  committed  during  the  war;  and  third,  interna- 
tional legislation  on  the  labor  question.  Were  there 
any  objections  ?  The  chair  hears  none.  Has  any  mem- 
ber a  question  to  put  to  the  chair  ?  We  must  be  in  ab- 
solute accord.  Xo  member  must  keep  to  himself  any 
remark  he  may  have  to  make.  If  no  one  asks  for  the 
floor,  the  session  is  closed. 

What  was  our  impression  of  the  conference  as  we 
looked  through  the  three  big  doorways,  as  we  jostled 
one  another  for  places,  and  climbed  about  on  the  costly 
damask  upholstery  of  the  chairs  with  the  gilded  legs? 
That  it  was  the  performance  of  three  men  at  the  most, 
with  two  others  in  the  background.  As  for  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  smaller  powers  who  sat  inside  the  coun- 
cil chamber,  they  were,  after  all,  spectators  like  our- 
selves, knowing  as  little  of  what  was  to  come  about  as  we 
who  tried  to  interpret  this  meeting  for  the  world.  ^"0 
one  raised  his  voice  in  opposition  to  the  program;  no 


44  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

one  could  have  carried  his  point  had  he  chosen  to  do  so. 
That  became  patent  at  the  next  plenary  session  of  the 
Peace  Conference  only  a  week  later,  on  January  25, 
1919,  when  the  great  work  of  preparing  the  draft 
covenant  for  the  League  of  Nations  was  formally  entered 
upon. 

This  second  session  had  before  it  a  motion  for  the 
creation  of  a  committee  on  the  League  of  Nations  and  a 
resolution  which  read  as  follows : 

The  Conference  having  considered  the  proposals  for  the  creation 
of  a  League  of  Nations,  resolves  that: 

(a)  It  is  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  the  world  settlement, 
which  the  associated  nations  are  now  met  to  establish,  that  a 
League  of  Nations  be  created  to  promote  international  cooperation 
to  insure  the  fulfilment  of  accepted  international  obligations  and 
to  provide  safeguards  against  war. 

(b)  This  League  should  be  treated  as  an  integral  part  of  the 
general  Treaty  of  Peace,  and  should  be  open  to  every  civilized 
nation  which  can  be  relied  on  to  promote  its  objects. 

(c)  The  members  of  the  League  should  periodically  meet  in  in- 
ternational conference  and  should  have  a  permanent  organization 
and  secretariat  to  carry  on  the  business  of  the  League  in  the  in- 
tervals between  the  conference. 

The  Conference  therefore  appoints  a  committee  representative 
of  the  associated  governments  to  work  out  the  details  of  the  con- 
stitution and  functions  of  the  League. 

M.  Clemenceau  declared  the  resolution  to  be  before 
the  conference.  President  Wilson  made  a  speech. 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  made  a  speech.  Signor  Orlando 
made  a  speech.  M.  Leon  Bourgeois  made  a  speech. 
The  delegates  who  were  not  in  the  sacred  circle  of  the 
five  great  powers  did  what  they  were  expected  to  do  — 
listened.  The  exception  was  Mr.  W.  M.  Hughes  of 
Australia.  He  impressed  one  as  being  a  man  who  be- 
lieved in  getting  all  that  was  coming  to  him.     And  it 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POmTS  45 

was  not  really  what  he  said  that  made  the  five  great 
powers  look  at  him  with  curiosity,  but  the  way  he  said 
it ;  for  his  words  were  simply  these : 

"  I  assume  that  we  shall  have  an  opportunity  to  dis- 
cuss the  scheme  when  it  is  finished." 

*^  Without  any  question/'  replied  M.  Clemenceau 
in  English. 

M.  Hymans  of  Belgium  likewise  had  something  to 
say  that  was  not  on  the  "  agenda/'  as  the  conference 
called  its  order  of  business.  M.  Hymans  asked  for  an 
explanation  of  the  concluding  paragraph  of  the  resolu- 
tion. M.  Clemenceau  replied  that  it  had  been  de- 
termined that  the  five  great  powers  were  to  name  two 
representatives  each  on  the  committee,  and  the  other 
powers  were  to  elect  five  representatives  in  common. 

"  But,"  objected  M.  Hymans,  "  that  gives  only  five 
delegates  to  the  nineteen  powers  that  are  conveniently 
called  ^  powers  with  special  interests.'  "  And  then  he 
drove  home  his  arguments : 

^^  The  only  committee  on  which  Belgium  is  ade- 
quately represented  is  the  committee  on  reparation  of 
damages. 

^^  Belgium  should  be  represented  on  the  committee 
on  the  League  of  Nations  because  of  her  special  inter- 
national situation  and  her  historical  and  geographical 
position. 

^'  Belgiimi  should  be  represented  on  the  committee 
on  labor  legislation  because,  before  the  war,  Belgium 
was  a  very  important  industrial  and  commercial  coun- 
try, ranking  fifth  or  sixth  in  the  list  of  industrial  powers. 

"  Belgium  should  be  represented  on  the  Qomiaittee 


46  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

on  ports,  railways,  and  waterways  because  Antwerp 
is  the  first  Allied  p^rt  on  the  Continent,  and  the  Bel- 
gian railways  are  important. 

"  Belgium  should  be  represented  on  the  committee 
on  crimes  and  responsibilities  because  some  of  the  worst 
crimes  were  committed  on  Belgian  soil. 

^'  I  appeal  to  the  fair  play  of  the  conference  and  of 
the  chairman." 

Evidently  there  were  other  nations  that  had  objec- 
tions to  make  to  the  prearranged  program.  One  after 
the  other  their  representatives  rose  and  asked  for  places 
on  one  or  more  of  the  committees. 

Senhor  Calogeras  spoke  for  Brazil ;  M.  Trumbitch  for 
the  Kingdom  of  the  Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes;  M. 
Venizelos  for  Greece;  Senhor  Garcia  for  Portugal;  M. 
Benes  for  Czecho-Slovakia ;  M.  Bratiano  for  Rumania ; 
M.  Lou  Tseng  Tsiang  for  China;  M.  Dmowski  for 
Poland;  and  finally  M.  Bidadh  Kosha  for  Siam.  It 
was  evident  that  the  representatives  of  the  five  great 
powers  had  overlooked  something. 

M.  Clemenceau  allowed  each  of  the  delegates  from 
the  "  powers  with  special  interests  "  to  have  his  say. 
Then  he  rose  to  reply. 

There  was  no  mystery,  he  said,  about  the  fact  that 
the  delegates  from  the  five  great  powers  were  meeting 
together  by  themselves. 

^'  The  five  great  powers,  I  am  obliged  to  say,  are  in 
a  position  to  do  so.  At  the  time  of  the  armistice  they 
had  together  12,000,000  men  under  arms  on  the  battle- 
fields.    Their  dead  can  be  counted  by  millions. 

"  If  the  idea,  that  great  idea  of  the  society  of  nations, 


THE  FOURTEEE^  POINTS  47  / 

was  not  above  the  whole  of  our  work  here,  it  would 
have  been  possible  for  us,  the  five  great  powers,  to  con- 
sult only  ourselves  in  the  settlement.  That  would  have 
been,  after  all,  our  right.  Well,  that  has  never  been 
our  thought.  We  have  asked  all  the  nations  interested 
in  the  settlement  to  meet  us  here." 

M.  Clemenceau  said  he  favored  small  committees  be- 
cause this  expedited  the  work.  He  said  that  any  power 
might  be  heard  at  any  time,  before  any  committee. 
But  he  wanted  the  great  questions  of  the  conference  to 
come  before  the  bureau  of  the  five  powers. 

^'  And  to  give  my  reason  frankly,"  said  M.  Clem- 
enceau, "  it  is  because  I  could  not,  we  would  not,  agree 
that  any  committee  should  have  the  right  to  dictate  to 
the  five  great  powers." 

That  closed  the  incident.  It  was  as  if  the  minor 
powers  had  acted  on  the  suggestion  that  ^'  if  you  want 
to  know  who  is  boss  around  here,  start  something." 

The  great  powers  had  12,000,000  men  under  arms 
when  the  armistice  came,  M.  Clemenceau  had  said. 
The  five  great  powers  would  not  have  needed  to  consult 
any  one  had  they  wished.  "  That  would  have  been, 
after  all,  our  right." 

Which  was,  of  course,  sufficiently  clear  to  all.  The 
basis  of  victory  was  force,  and  the  basis  of  the  negotia- 
tions was  force.  The  place  that  each  nation  took  in 
the  conference  was  determined  by  its  size,  its  influence, 
and  its  military  strength.  And  when  the  truce  with 
Germany  was  made  permanent,  it  would  again  have  to  be 
the  force  mustered  by  the  five  great  powers  that  would 
become  the  backbone  of  "  a  just  and  lasting  peace." 


CHAPTER  IV 

How  President  Wilson  went  across  the  seas  with  his  formula  for 
peace,  and  found  that  Europe  had  a  few  ideas  on  the  same  subject. 

LoED  Robert  Cecil,  K.C,  ran  his  long,  lean  fingers 
up .  and  down  the  seam  of  the  green  table-cloth  and 
studied  it  intently.  His  figure,  too,  was  long  and  lean, 
and  when  he  spoke  he  bent  forward  as  if  to  get  close 
to  his  audience.  He  was  facing  a  table  arranged  in 
the  form  of  a  hollow  square;  there  were  blotting-pads 
at  regular  intervals,  and  an  incandescent-light  globe 
swung  down  over  each  of  the  pads.  Lord  Robert's  class 
on  the  League  of  Nations  had  transformed  the  finest 
salon  of  the  Hotel  Astoria  into  a  school-room. 

"  The  Monroe  Doctrine  ?  "  Lord  Robert  was  saying. 
"  Well,  now,  the  j\Ionroe  Doctrine  cannot  really  be  in- 
corporated into  the  constitution  of  the  League  of  Na- 
tions. No,  indeed.  What  will  happen  is  this:  when 
trouble  breaks  out  on  the  Western  Hemisphere,  the 
league  will  naturally  appoint  the  United  States  to  take 
care  of  it,  of  course." 

^'  But  will  the  constitution  of  the  league  specifically 
name  the  United  States  for  this  duty  ?  "  asked  one  of  the 
"  pupils." 

"No,  I  do  not  think  it  will;  but  of  course  no  one 
would  think  of  appointing  any  other  nation  than  the 
United  States  to  do  that  work." 

48 


THE  F0URTEE:N^  points  49 

"  And  will  the  league  interfere  with  immigration^ 
Lord  Robert  ? '' 

"  ISTot  at  all.  Immigration  is  an  internal  matter. 
The  league  will  not  interfere  with  any  legislation  on 
immigration  that  the  United  States  sees  fit  to  pass." 

This  was  a  class  in  which  the  pupils  did  the  asking 
and  the  schoolmaster  did  the  explaining. 

"  And  will  there  be  an  international  army  and  navy  ? 
Or  will  the  league  be  able  to  order  any  army  and  navy 
to  fight  ?  Will  the  league  be  able  to  order  the  British 
Navy  to  fight  ?  " 

^'  The  British  Navy  ?  Of  course  not.  I  do  not  con- 
sider an  international  army  and  navy  practical.  Nor 
can  the  league  order  any  army  and  navy  to  fight.  The 
league  will  ask  one  of  its  members  to  apply  force  where 
it  is  needed.  But  that  member  directs  its  own  army 
and  navy.'' 

Lord  Robert  Cecil  was  the  chief  lecturer  for  the 
British  Empire  on  the  League  of  Nations.  He  dis- 
cussed its  constitution,  its  membership,  its  powers,  its 
possibilities.  He  described  hypothetical  cases  and  gave 
practical  examples  of  its  administration  of  world  affairs. 
At  the  same  time  M.  Andre  Tardieu  spoke  early  and 
often  on  the  attitude  of  France.  In  formal  interviews 
M.  Leon  Bourgeois  outlined  the  absolute  essentials  for 
the  organization  of  the  league.  At  the  Hotel  Lutetia 
the  American  Peace  Association  issued  bulletins  and 
manifestos.  Lieutenant-General  J.  C.  Smuts  had  so 
many  thoughts  on  the  subject  that  he  published  them 
in  pamphlet  form.  C.  J.  Hoherty,  Canadian  Minister 
of  Justice,  prepared  a  detailed  memorandum.     Oscar 


50  THE  ADVENTUEES  OF 

Straus  spoke  in  glowing  terms  of  a  roseate  future  under 
the  league.  ]Kornian  Angell  coached  from  the  side 
lines.     Paris  was  a  veritable  Chautauqua. 

But  at  the  Villa  Murat  silence,  and  at  the  Hotel  de 
( 'rillon  only  a  whisper  now  and  then  from  Colonel  House 
—  a  disconcerting  whisper. 

On  IS^ovember  4,  1918,  seven  days  after  Colonel  House 
began  his  conferences  with  the  Allied  premiers  in  Paris 
on  the  subject  of  signing  an  armistice  with  Germany, 
the  Allies  formally  accepted  the  principles  of  President 
Wilson  as  the  basis  for  peace.  America  acclaimed  them. 
All  Europe  was  ostensibly  in  full  accord.  Germany 
agreed  to  them  in  her  correspondence  with  the  President, 
and  in  admitting  her  readiness  to  sign  the  terms  of  the 
armistice.  And  one  of  the  fourteen  principles  of  Presi- 
dent Wilson,  the  fourteenth,  in  fact,  was  this : 

A  general  association  of  nations  must  be  formed  under  specific 
covenants  for  the  purpose  of  affording  mutual  guarantees  of  po- 
litical independence  and  territorial  integrity  to  great  and  small 
states  alike. 

Almost  like  an  after-thought  it  seemed  to  have  been 
incorporated  in  the  Fourteen  Points.  But  it  was  not 
an  aftor-thoiight.  It  had  lingered  for  a  long  time  in 
his  mind.  When  on  April  2,  1917,  President  Wilson 
asked  Congress  to  declare  war  against  Germany,  when 
he  said  that  the  world  must  be  made  safe  for  democ- 
racy, he  also  declared : 

A  steadfast  concert  for  peace  can  never  be  maintained  except 
by  a  partnership  of  democratic  nations.  No  autocratic  govern- 
ment could  be  trusted  to  keep  faith  within  it  or  observe  its 
covenants.  It  must  be  a  league  of  honor,  a  partnership  of 
opinion.     Intrigue  would  eat  its  vitals  away;  the  plottings  of  in- 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  51 

ner  circles  who  could  plan  what  they  would  and  render  account 
to  no  one  would  be  a  corruption  seated  at  its  heart. 

As  time  went  on,  the  President  elaborated  upon  his 
theme.  On  July  4,  1918,  he  said  that  one  of  the  aims 
of  the  war  was 

.  .  .  the  establishment  of  an  organization  of  peace  which  shall 
make  it  certain  that  the  combined  power  of  free  nations  will  check 
every  invasion  of  right,  and  serve  to  make  peace  and  justice 
the  more  secure  by  affording  a  definite  tribunal  of  opinion  to  which 
all  must  submit,  and  by  which  every  international  readjustment 
that  cannot  be  amicably  agreed  upon  by  the  peoples  directly  con- 
cerned shall  be  sanctioned. 

And  as  every  one  was  agreed,  the  Peace  Conference 
placed  the  League  of  T^ations  first  in  its  order  of  busi- 
ness. It  was  inseparable,  the  President  had  said,  from 
the  treaty  of  peace  itself.  On  January  25,  1919,  the 
Peace  Conference  in  plenary  session  voted  the  nomina- 
tion of  a  commission  on  the  League  of  Nations,  to  be 
composed  of  fifteen  members,  two  from  each  of  the  five 
great  powers,  and  five  from  the  powers  with  special  in- 
terests. On  January  27  the  smaller  powers  chose  Bel- 
gium, Brazil,  China,  Portugal,  and  Serbia  to  name 
one  representative  each  on  the  commission,  and  on  Feb- 
ruary 6  the  conference  leaders  permitted  Greece,  Po- 
land, Rumania,  and  the  Czecho-Slovak  Republic  each 
to  name  a  member,  on  recommendation  of  the  commis- 
sion itself.  So  that,  when  its  organization  was  finally 
completed,  the  commission  included  these  notable  men : 
President  Wilson  and  Colonel  House  for  the  United 
States ;  Lord  Robert  Cecil  and  Lieuten ant-General  J.  C. 
Smuts  for  the  British  Empire ;  Leon  Bourgeois  and  M. 
Larnaude  for  France;  Premier  Orlando  and  Senator 


52  THE  ADVENTUIIES  OF 

Scialoja  for  Italy;  Baron  Makino  and  Viscount  Cliinda 
for  J  apan ;  Paul  Hymans  for  Belgium ;  Epitacio  Pessoa 
for  Brazil;  V.  K.  Wellington  Koo  for  China;  J.  Ba- 
talha-Reis  for  Portugal;  Milenko  Vesnitch  for  Serbia; 
Eleutlierios  Venizelos  for  Greece;  Roman  Dmowski  for 
Poland;  M.  Diamandj  for  Rumania,  and  Karel  Kra- 
marcz  for  Czecho-Slovakia. 

The  most  remarkable  thing  about  the  League  of  Na- 
tions was  the  unanimity  with  which  the  powers  wel- 
comed the  idea.  They  may  have  said  quietly  and  with- 
out emotion  that  they  were  in  favor  of  the  Fourteen 
Points,  but  when  it  came  to  the  fourteenth,  they  shouted 
their  approval  from  the  housetops.  Their  views  were 
unanimous  on  another  matter  —  that  the  German  col- 
onies must  not  go  back  to  Germany. 

This  was  in  keeping  with  point  five,  which  provided 
for  "  a  free,  open-minded,  and  absolutely  impartial  ad- 
justment of  all  colonial  claims,  based  upon  a  strict  ob- 
servance of  the  principle  that  in  determining  all  such 
questions  of  sovereignty  the  interests  of  the  populations 
concerned  must  have  equal  weight  with  the  equitable 
claims  of  the  government  whose  title  is  to  be  deter- 
mined." 

It  happened  that  just  before  the  commission  on  the 
League  of  Xations  got  under  way  the  representatives  of 
the  five  great  powers  —  the  council  of  five  —  took  up 
the  subject  of  the  disposition  of  the  German  colonies 
in  the  far  East,  the  Pacific,  and  Africa.  President  Wil- 
son thereupon  suggested  that  they  be  "  internation- 
alized," by  which  he  meant  that  guardianship  of  the 
German  colonies  and  the  dependent  lands  of  the  Otto- 


THE  FOURTEEN^  POINTS  53 

man  Empire  should  be  vested  in  the  League  of  Nations. 
The  league  might  appoint  other  nations  to  administer 
these  colonies,  but  the  league  would  be  the  final  au- 
thority, and  the  inhabitants  of  these  lands  were  to 
have  the  right  to  develop  unhampered. 

The  suggestion  had  the  effect  of  a  bombshell.  Dele- 
gates from  several  nations  who  had  quietly  contemplated 
raising  their  owa.  flags  on  the  German  colonies,  poured 
out  of  the  hotels  in  a  frenzy  and  began  dashing  madly 
up  and  down  the  Avenue  des  Champs-Elysees  in  taxi- 
cabs.  European  and  other  statesmen,  who  were  wedded 
to  the  principles  of  democracy,  began  to  talk  about  a 
betrayal  of  their  interests. 

Japan  demanded  the  possession  of  the  Caroline  Is- 
lands, including  the  Pelew  and  Mariana  islands,  a  group 
east  of  the  Philippines  and  north  of  New  Guinea,  be- 
tween five  and  ten  degrees  north  latitude.  Japan  like- 
wise claimed  the  Marshall  Islands,  also  known  as  Mi- 
cronesia, a  group  of  thirty-three  small  islands  between 
four  and  fifteen  degrees  north  latitude.  As  early  as 
1917  Japan  had  obtained  the  promises  of  her  allies, 
Great  Britain,  Erance,  Eussia,  and  Italy,  that  they 
would  support  her  claims  upon  the  German  islands 
north  of  the  equator. 

Australia,  through  Mr.  Hughes,  its  prime  minister, 
asked  for  the  extensive  island  possessions  of  Germany 
in  New  Guinea,  including  the  Bismarck  archipelago  and 
the  Solomon  Islands,  approximately  94,200  miles  in 
extent.  Mr.  Hughes  objected  with  great  determina- 
tion to  President  Wilson's  plan,  even  though  the  Presi- 
dent suggested  that  Australia  be  given  a  mandate  for 


64  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

these  islands  bv  the  league.  He  directed  attention  to 
the  fact  that  public  opinion  in  Australia  fully  expected 
these  possessions  as  Australia's  share  in  the  settlement. 
The  acting  prime  minister,  Watt,  sent  a  cable  message 
to  Paris  saying  that  this  view  was  unanimous. 

The  Union  of  South  Africa  wished  to  extend  its  ad- 
ministration over  the  contiguous  German  territory  in 
German  Southwest  Africa,  and  German  East  Africa 
also  was  expected  to  come  under  British  rule.  General 
Botha,  acting  for  the  Union,  was  particularly  opposed 
to  the  President's  scheme,  and  spoke  at  length  against 
it. 

France  looked  forward  to  extending  its  sovereignty 
over  Kamerun  and  Togoland.  Kamerun  was  occupied 
by  French  and  British  forces  during  the  war,  and  an 
agreement  was  made  with  Britain  whereby  France  ad- 
ministered five  sixths  of  Kamerun,  including  the  port 
of  Duala,  and  the  British  held  a  strip  adjoining  Ni- 
geria, including  the  district  of  Chad.  The  two  na- 
tions agreed  that  in  the  event  the  Allies  took  this  col- 
ony from  Germany,  this  administrative  arrangement 
should  become  permanent. 

President  Wilson  wished  the  application  of  his  prin- 
ciple to  be  general.  Lieutenant-General  J.  C.  Smuts, 
Minister  of  Defense  for  the  Union  of  South  Africa,  had 
suggested  a  similar  plan  in  a  pamphlet  published  on 
January  10  in  London,  in  which  he  took  a  stand  against 
annexation  of  any  territory  of  the  Ottoman  Empire, 
Eussia,  and  Austria-Hungary,  saying  that  if  sover- 
eignty was  changed  in  any  part  of  their  holdings,  the 
lands  should  be  administered  by  the  powers  under  a 


THE  FOURTEEN"  POINTS  55 

mandate  from  the  league,  loyally  and  justly,  with  a 
view  of  observing  the  right  of  the  people  to  dispose  of 
themselves,  the  form  of  government  to  be  based  on  the 
consent  of  the  governed.  But  General  Smuts  was  not 
willing  at  first  to  apply  this  system  to  German  holdings 
in  Africa. 

Interest  centered  on  the  attitude  of  the  delegation 
from  Great  Britain.  At  first  its  members  supported 
the  pretensions  of  the  dominions,  although  they  declared 
that  they  were  willing  to  accept  a  mandate  for  German 
East  Africa.  On  January  29  the  British  Imperial  War 
Cabinet  accepted  the  President's  proposal  despite  the 
opposition  from  the  dominions.  The  decision  was  far- 
reaching  in  its  consequences.  It  made  victory  for 
President  Wilson  certain.  It  swung  the  dominions  over 
to  his  idea.  It  compelled  Japan  to  relinquish  reluc- 
tantly her  claims  for  territory  and  to  support  the  man- 
datory principle.  Within  the  next  day  all  gave  their 
adherence.  Australia  held  out  the  longest,  declaring 
that  the  possession  of  New  Guinea  was  necessary  for 
strategic  reasons.  When  the  decision  was  announced, 
there  were  delegates  who  declared  that  it  struck  at  the 
very  foundations  of  the  British  Empire.  On  the  other 
hand  it  was  also  said  that  Great  Britain  would  be  much 
more  able  to  solve  her  difficulties  in  Asia  Minor  under 
the  system  of  mandates  than  by  annexation. 

When  the  council  of  five  agreed  upon  the  mandatory 
principle,  they  took  the  League  of  Nations  out  of  the 
realm  of  fiction  and  made  it  a  vital  and  necessary  thing. 
The  league  now  had  its  reason  for  existence.  It  had 
extensive  territories  to  supervise,   and  the   well-being 


66  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

of  millions  of  human  beings,  many  of  them  not  yet 
far  advanced  in  civilization,  to  watch  over  and  protect 
from  exploitation.  The  commission  on  the  league 
might  now  go  forward  with  the  conviction  that  a  real 
business  organization  must  be  effected. 

It  is  this  commission  which,  sitting  under  the  chair- 
manship of  President  Wilson,  prepared  the  document 
that  w^e  now  know  as  the  covenant  of  the  League  of  ISTa- 
tions.  The  covenant  passed  through  two  stages  before 
it  was  incorporated  in  the  treaty  of  peace.  The  first 
stage  w^as  from  the  time  of  the  appointment  of  the  com- 
mission until  February  14,  when  it  reported  the  first 
draft  of  the  covenant  to  the  Peace  Conference  in  plenary 
session.  During  this  time  ten  meetings  were  held. 
The  task  of  receiving  suggestions  for  a  revision  of  the 
covenant  was  then  taken  up,  and  five  more  meetings 
were  held.  A  committee  of  the  commission  gave  two 
days  to  representatives  of  thirteen  neutral  states.  The 
outcome  was  the  revised  draft  of  the  covenant,  which 
was  presented  on  April  28  to  the  Peace  Conference,  and 
adopted  on  motion  of  President  Wilson. 

The  neutral  nations  were  heard  by  Lord  Pobert  Cecil, 
Colonel  House,  M.  Bourgeois,  M.  Hymans,  ]\L  Vesnitch, 
and  M.  Venizelos.  The  states  sending  representatives 
were  Argentine,  Chile,  Colombia,  Denmark,  the  Nether- 
lands, Norway,  Paraguay,  Persia,  Salvador,  Spain, 
Sweden,  Switzerland,  and  Venezuela.  The  discussions 
brought  out  some  interesting  points  of  view.  Denmark 
proposed  that  armaments  be  limited  as  soon  as  possible, 
that  the  control  of  the  limitation  of  armaments  be  as 
complete  as  possible,  and  that  the  manufacture  of  war 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  57 

implements  by  private  firms  be  prohibited.  Switzer- 
land asked  that  its  neutrality  be  conserved  in  the  league. 
Denmark  also  proposed  that  no  neutral  state  be  expected 
to  furnish  military  aid,  and  that  its  territory  be  invio- 
late. Lord  Robert  Cecil  suggested  that  a  neutral  be  ex- 
pected to  join  in  restrictive  economic  measures,  if  neces- 
sary. Sweden  insisted  upon  the  right  to  armies  of  de- 
fense for  small  states  even  under  the  league.  The  meet- 
ings were  important  because  they  showed  the  interest  of 
these  nations  in  the  league. 

The  story  of  what  took  place  in  these  meetings  lays 
bare  all  the  elements  that  control  the  progress  or  inspire 
the  ambitions  of  nations.  The  commission  met  in  a 
large  room  in  the  suite  of  Colonel  House  on  the  third 
floor  of  the  Hotel  de  Crillon.  The  delegates  came  to- 
gether whenever  they  could  get  the  time,  morning,  after- 
noon, or  night,  and  there  were  several  occasions  when 
the  President  toiled  until  midnight  on  the  league  after 
a  hard  day  with  the  council  of  four.  The  delegates 
spoke  in  French  or  English,  as  they  pleased,  and  inter- 
preters translated  their  remarks  as  they  went  along, 
whispering  the  words  to  those  who  did  not  understand 
both  languages.  Every  day  the  secretaries  placed  be- 
fore each  delegate  a  memorandum  telling  exactly  what 
progress  had  been  made  the  day  before.  Amendments 
were  submitted  in  advance,  and  were  in  the  hands  of 
every  delegate  before  the  discussion  began.  jSTo  de- 
tailed stenographic  records  were  kept,  and  the  President 
encouraged  an  informal  flow  of  conversation,  keeping  it 
well  within  bounds.  At  one  moment  when  the  com- 
mission had  entered  upon  a  discussion  of  what  migiit 


68  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

happen  far  in  the  future  the  President  remarked: 
^'  Gentlemen,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  next  generation 
will  be  made  up  of  men  as  intelligent  as  you  or  I,  and  1 
think  we  can  trust  the  league  to  manage  its  own  af- 
fairs." The  drafting  committee  was  composed  of 
Messrs.  Larnaude,  Venizelos,  Vesnitch,  and  Lord  Rob- 
ert Cecil.  The  covenant  was  set  up  and  printed  by 
American  soldiers  attached  to  the  mission,  to  whom 
President  Wilson  expressed  his  thanks  in  a  graceful 
letter  just  before  he  sailed  for  the  United  States  in 
February. 

There  were  days  when  it  seemed  as  if  the  League  of 
Nations  would  be  nothing  more  than  a  resolution  of  good 
will  between  the  nations.  There  were  reports  of  stormy 
debates,  of  threats  to  leave  the  commission,  of  charges 
that  the  vital  interests  of  nations  were  being  trafficked 
away.  Opponents  of  the  league  idea  began  to  spring 
from  all  sorts  of  odd  places,  giving  out  interviews  show- 
ing that  the  league  was  the  impracticable  dream  of  an 
idealist;  either  that,  or  the  well-calculated  scheme  of 
the  Anglo-American  interests  to  checkmate  the  legiti- 
mate ambitions  of  all  other  nations  and  place  the  world 
in  bondage.  President  Wilson  was  called  by  turns  a 
crank,  a  dreamer,  an  obstructionist,  a  visionary,  an 
idealist,  and  the  greatest  friend  of  mankind.  The  na- 
tions of  the  world  were  ready  to  enter  into  an  agree- 
ment to  keep  the  peace,  but  each  wanted  its  own  kind 
of  agreement  and  its  own  brand  of  peace.  i 

It  is  safe  to  assert  that  without  President  Wilson  there 
would  have  been  no  covenant  of  the  League  of  Nations. 
Day  in  and  day  out  he  held  steadfastly  to  his  idea, 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  59 

which  was  that  of  a  league  as  nearly  remote  from  sel- 
fish aims  as  could  be  fashioned  in  an  imperfect  world. 
More  and  more  marked,  too,  became  the  adherence  of 
Mr.  Lloyd  George,  Lord  Robert  Cecil,  and  the  other 
members  of  the  delegation  from  Great  Britain.  Critics 
of  the  President's  motives  found  in  this  fact  ample  scope 
for  biting  invective.  The  shrewd  Britons,  they  argued, 
recognized  in  the  league  an  instrument  to  preserve  the 
British  Empire  from  external  aggression  and  internal 
upheavals.  The  President,  they  said,  had  traded  off  the 
freedom  of  the  seas  for  British  help  to  build  the  league. 
And  yet  no  one  disputed  the  fact  that  the  President  had 
back  of  him  the  great  body  of  public  opinion  not  only 
of  America,  but  of  the  European  Allies. 

The  American  mission  proved  especially  sensitive  to 
suggestions  and  criticism  that  came  from  the  United 
States.  Several  times  its  members  told  me  that  they 
would  gladly  cooperate  with  leaders  of  thought  in 
America  if  the  chasm  caused  by  political  considerations 
could  be  bridged.  The  remarks  of  William  H.  Taft, 
Elihu  Root,  and  Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  were  care- 
fully perused  and  studied.  It  was  felt  that  political 
animus  entered  more  sharply  into  the  speeches  of  Sen- 
ator Philander  C.  Knox  and  other  senators  who  used 
the  league  as  an  opportunity  to  attack  the  President. 
No  doubt  the  President  was  much  to  blame  for  the  gulf 
that  separated  him  from  the  Senate,  for  he  had  greatly 
antagonized  its  members  by  making  the  league  more  a 
personal  than  a  national  matter.  His  habit  of  keeping 
his  own  counsel,  of  conferring  with  no  one  when  he  did 
not  consider  it  necessary,  and  of  making  no  compromises 


60  THE  ADVEXTURES  OF 

with  public  opinion  was  at  the  bottom  of  much  of  the 
animus.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  other  mem- 
bers of  the  mission  were  in  personal  touch  by  cable  with 
leaders  in  America. 

It  then  happened  that  the  United  States,  which  had 
believed  that  all  nations  should  make  sacrifices  to  real- 
ize the  great  idea  of  the  league,  refused  to  compromise 
its  own  interests  in  view  of  the  experimental  character 
of  the  international  body.  The  first  stumbling-block 
was  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  It  was  patent  that  if  the 
world  peace  was  to  be  guaranteed  by  a  central  organiza- 
tion of  all  the  powers,  there  would  be  no  need  for  any 
one  power  to  set  aside  any  part  of  the  world  for  its  special 
field.  America,  which  came  to  Europe  and  recognized 
that  the  oceans  no  longer  effectively  separated  the  con- 
tinents, could  not  tell  Europe  that  the  Western  Hemis- 
phere was  its  ward.  Obviously,  if  that  could  be  done, 
Japan  was  entitled  to  set  up  a  Monroe  Doctrine  for 
the  far  East,  and  Great  Britain  could  assert  the  same 
guardianship  over  most  of  Africa.  But  the  American 
people  were  not  convinced  that  Europe  had  undergone 
a  change  of  heart  by  the  mere  organization  of  the 
league,  and  although  conceptions  of  the  scope  and  ef- 
fectiveness of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  differed,  there  was 
something  particularly  vital  to  our  national  life  in 
President  Monroe's  declaration  that  "  the  American  con- 
tinents, by  the  free  and  independent  condition  which 
they  have  assumed  and  maintain,  are  henceforth  not 
to  be  considered  as  subjects  for  future  colonization  by 
any  European  power,"  and  that  any  attempt  to  infringe 
on  the  independence  of  American  governments  would 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  61 

be  viewed  as  "  the  manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  dis- 
position toward  the  United  States."  The  American 
argument  prevailed ;  the  President  accepted  the  sugges- 
tion and  placed  it  before  the  commission ;  Europe 
agreed  because  it  could  not  afford  to  antagonize  Amer- 
ica, and  Japan  assented  likewise,  and  in  the  final  draft 
of  the  league  covenant  was  inserted  Article  XXI,  which 
says  that  "  nothing  in  this  covenant  shall  be  deemed 
to  affect  the  validity  of  international  engagements,  such 
as  treaties  of  arbitration  or  regional  understandings 
like  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  for  securing  the  maintenance 
of  peace." 

Another  American  criticism  was  that  the  league 
might  have  to  decide  whether  or  not  the  immigration 
legislation  of  the  United  States  was  justified.  The 
United  States  felt  that  the  control  of  immigration  was 
a  sovereign  right,  no  matter  if  it  involved  discrimina- 
tion against  the  people  of  other  nations.  This  point 
also  affected  the  wishes  of  Australia,  and  for  the  very 
same  reason,  for  both  the  United  States  and  Australia 
wished  to  limit  the  immigration  of  undesirable  Asiatics, 
and  this  might  well  endanger  international  comity,  par- 
ticularly in  view  of  Japan's  assertion  that  this  branded 
the  Japanese  people  as  of  an  inferior  race.  Would 
this  become  a  subject  for  international  investigation? 
Again  the  President  forced  the  issue,  and  a  new  para- 
graph in  the  covenant  provided  that  "  if  the  dispute  be- 
tween the  parties  is  claimed  by  one  of  them,  and  is 
found  by  the  council  to  arise  out  of  a  matter  which 
by  international  law  is  solely  within  the  domestic  jur- 
isdiction of  that  party,  the  council  shall  so  report,  and 


62  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

shall  make  no  recommendation  as  to  its  settlement." 
Withdrawal  from  the  league  was  another  American 
suggestion,  and  led  to  a  provision  that  any  member 
might  withdraw  after  giving  two  years'  notice,  provided 
that  it  had  fulfilled  all  of  its  obligations.  The  charge 
that  the  British  were  able  to  outvote  all  other  nations 
in  the  council  was  met  by  the  explicit  provision  that  in 
the  council  each  nation  should  have  one  representative 
and  one  vote,  and  that  all  decisions  must  be  unanimous 
in  both  the  council  and  the  assembly,  with  the  exception 
of  votes  on  procedure.  This  was  an  improvement,  but 
not  yet  satisfactory  to  all  interests.  Although  it  made 
the  one  vote  of  the  United  States  equal  to  the  six  votes 
of  the  British  Empire,  the  British  group  still  had  a  veto 
power  of  six  to  our  one.  Besides,  although  Canada, 
Australia,  New  Zealand  and  the  Union  of  South  Africa 
were  properly  self-governing  dominions,  this  was  not 
true  of  India,  which  had  its  foreign  affairs  ruled  from 
London.  The  term  "  British  Empire  "  for  one  of  the 
memberships  in  the  league  also  was  misleading,  as  it 
would  appear  to  cover  the  dominions  as  well  as  Great 
Britain,  thus  giving  them  double  representation.  The 
British,  however,  felt  that  the  time  was  near  when  Lon- 
don could  no  longer  represent  the  dominions  in  foreign 
relations.  The  Peace  Conference  was  the  first  instance 
of  their  becoming  signatories  to  an  international  con- 
vention on  their  own  behalf,  and  as  Viscount  Milner, 
secretary  of  state  for  the  colonies,  said,  it  marked  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  British 
Empire. 

Objection  to  having  the  United  States  obligated  to  ad- 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  63 

minister  the  affairs  of  colonies  in  other  continents  when 
it  was  not  willing  to  do  so  was  met  by  the  provision  that 
mandataries  shall  be  given  to  countries  that  are  willing 
to  accept  them.  A  definition  of  justiciable  questions 
was  also  added.  Nearly  all  these  suggestions  came  from 
Mr.  Elihu  Root  and  Mr.  William  H.  Taft.  The  Amer- 
ican delegates,  however,  were  unable  to  obtain  a  clause 
providing  for  compulsory  arbitration,  another  of  Mr. 
Root's  points. 

American  leaders  also  objected  to  having  the  military 
and  naval  forces  of  the  United  States  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  league,  or  of  abrogating  any  of  the  sovereign 
rights  of  the  United  States  over  its  armed  forces  and 
their  disposition  for  national  defense.  There  is,  how- 
ever, no  provision  for  ordering  out  any  army  and  navy 
without  the  consent  of  the  nation  itself,  and  it  is  ex- 
pressly stated  that  the  council  shall  "  recommend  "  what 
effective  military  and  naval  force  shall  be  contributed 
to  protect  the  covenants  of  the  league. 

There  remains,  however.  Article  X,  against  which 
much  criticism  has  been  directed  because  it  provides 
that  "  the  members  of  the  League  undertake  to  respect 
and  preserve  as  against  external  aggression  the  terri- 
torial integrity  and  existing  political  independence  of 
all  members  of  the  League."  It  was  argued  that  the 
nations  might  be  compelled  to  support  a  member  in 
putting  down  the  legitimate  uprising  of  a  subject  peo- 
ple. The  word  "  external,"  however,  effectively  indi- 
cates that  aggression  must  come  from  without.  At  the 
same  time  it  is  believed  that  in  practical  operation 
the  other  machinery  of  the  league,  including  investiga- 


64  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

tion,  arbitration,  and  hearings  before  the  court  of  in- 
ternational justice  will  force  a  just  consideration  of 
all  grievances  arising  out  of  misgovernment.  It  was 
the  contention  of  President  Wilson  and  the  other  f  ram- 
ers  of  the  covenant  that  Article  X  must  be  read  in  con- 
nection with  other  articles  which  safeguard  the  liberty 
of  action  of  members  of  the  league. 

Erance,  frankly  and  openly,  visualized  the  League  of 
Nations  as  an  instrument  of  protection  for  France. 
The  members  of  the  French  mission  made  that  their 
sole  aim.  They  became  enthusiastically  in  favor  of 
the  league  when  they  believed  that  it  would  build  a 
wall  against  German  aggression  in  the  future ;  they 
grew  gradually  lukewarm  when  they  felt  that  the  safe- 
guards were  insufficient.  Over  and  over  again  France 
stated  her  case:  secure  boundaries,  adequate  military 
protection,  instantaneous  action  against  aggression. 

To  bring  this  about,  France,  through  Leon  Bourgeois, 
submitted  to  the  commission  on  the  league  two  amend- 
ments. The  first  amendment  (to  Article  VIII)  read 
as  follows : 


The  high  contracting  parties  being  determined  to  interchange 
full  and  frank  information  as  to  the  scale  of  armaments,  their 
military  and  naval  programs,  and  the  conditions  of  such  of  their 
industries  as  are  adaptable  to  warlike  purposes,  have  appointed 
a  committee  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  so  far  as  possible  the 
above  information. 

The  second  amendment  (to  Article  IX)  read: 

A  permanent  organization  shall  be  constituted  for  the  purpose 
of  considering  and  providing  for  naval  and  military  measures  to 
enforce  the  obligations  arising  from  the  high  contracting  parties 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  65 

under    this    covenant    and    of    making    it    eflFective    in    cases    of 
emergency. 

M.  Bourgeois,  who  had  devoted  a  great  part  of  his 
life  to  projects  for  the  maintenance  of  peace,  and  who 
had  represented  France  at  the  peace  conferences  at  The 
Hague,  fought  for  these  resolutions  from  the  moment 
the  commission  began  its  work.  He  declared  that  the 
mere  intention  of  the  governments  to  give  information 
to  one  another  was  not  enough,  that  the  ^'  instrument 
of  verification  "  was  lacking.  Article  IX  read  simply: 
"  A  permanent  commission  shall  be  constituted  to  ad- 
vise the  council  on  the  execution  of  the  provisions  of 
Articles  I  and  VIIT  and  on  military  and  naval  ques- 
tions generally."  M.  Bourgeois  felt  that  means  should 
be  taken  to  make  action  effective  without  long  debate. 
He  contended  that  a  system  of  ^^  mutual  control  and 
mutual  guarantees  "  of  armaments  gives  offense  to  no 
one,  when  the  system  is  universally  applied.  He  in- 
dorsed the  views  of  Mr.  Elihu  Root  on  the  mutual  con- 
trol of  armaments.  "  What  is  most  important  if  we 
are  to  succeed  is  not  to  allow  those  who  are  willing  to 
resist  the  league  to  have  force  in  their  hands.  There- 
fore the  most  important  point  to  us  is  the  limitation 
of  armaments."  The  objection  to  the  first  amendment 
is  believed  to  have  come  principally  from  the  British. 
The  second  amendment  is  the  one  that  became  known 
as  the  "  international  general  staff  "  amendment.  M. 
Bourgeois  denied  that  it  organized  such  a  staff. 

The  amendments  were  not  adopted,  to  the  great  dis- 
appointment of  M.  Bourgeois  and  the  French  delegates, 
who  thereupon  turned  to  M.  Clemenceau's  favorite  idea 


66  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

that,  after  all,  alliances  are  the  best  guaranties,  and 
began  helping  France  to  form  a  defensive  alliance  with 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  of  which  more 
will  be  said  later. 

Another  important  amendment  to  the  covenant,  which 
also  failed  of  acceptance,  was  presented  by  Baron  Ma- 
kino  on  behalf  of  Japan.  The  presentation  of  this 
amendment  is  one  of  the  important  events  of  the  Peace 
Conference  —  one  which  may  well  have  far-reaching 
consequences  in  the  future.  It  was  meant  by  Japan 
to  remove  the  implied  stain  of  inferiority  from  the 
Mongolian  people.     It  read: 

The  equality  of  nations  being  a  basic  principle  of  the  League 
of  Nations,  the  high  contracting  parties  agreed  to  accord,  as 
soon  as  possible,  to  all  aliens,  nationals  of  states  members  of 
the  League,  equal  and  just  treatment  in  every  respect,  making  no 
distinction,  either  in  law  or  in  fact,  on  account  of  their  race  or 
nationality. 

It  was  common  belief  in  conference  circles  that  this 
amendment  was  meant  by  Japan  to  pave  the  way  for 
diplomatic  action  against  the  United  States  and  Aus- 
tralia to  end  discrimination  against  Japanese  who  de- 
sired to  make  their  home  in  those  countries. 

Baron  Makino  first  presented  this  amendment  to 
the  commission  on  February  13,  but  it  was  not  placed 
in  the  covenant  in  time  for  the  plenary  session  on  Feb- 
ruary 14.  It  was  said  in  reply  that  the  very  presence 
of  the  Japanese  at  the  conference  proved  that  they  were 
given  equality  of  treatment.  Baron  Makino  said  that 
he  would  bring  the  subject  up  again.  On  April  11  he 
proposed   the   amendment   to   the   commission.     It   re- 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  67 

ceived  a  majority  of  the  votes  cast,  but  President  Wil- 
son ruled  that  unanimous  consent  was  necessary,  and 
that  the  amendment  had  therefore  failed  of  adoption. 
At  the  plenary  session  on  April  28  Baron  Makino 
again  repeated  his  effort,  without  success.  The  argu- 
ment of  the  Japanese  representative  was  clearly  and  ex- 
cellently stated.     He  closed  with  these  words : 

I  feel  it  my  duty  to  declare  clearly  on  this  occasion  that  the 
Japanese  Government  and  people  feel  poignant  regret  at  the  fail- 
ure of  the  Commission  to  approve  of  their  just  demand  for  laying 
down  a  principle  aiming  at  the  adjustment  of  this  long  standing 
grievance,  the  demand  that  is  based  upon  a  deep-rooted  national 
conviction.  They  will  contiiue  in  their  insistence  for  the  adop- 
tion of  this  principle  by  the  League  in  future. 

The  defeat  of  this  amendment  may  properly  be  laid 
at  the  door  of  the  United  States.  Australia  and  'New 
Zealand  were  strongly  against  it,  but  the  United  States 
might  have  forced  its  passage.  It  was  a  strange 
anomaly  that  the  nation  which  typified  democracy  and 
liberty  to  most  of  the  oppressed  peoples  of  the  earth  was 
not  able  to  countenance  a  clear  statement  of  principles 
enunciated  in  its  Declaration  of  Independence  and  in 
its  Constitution.  Practical  considerations  intervened. 
The  Japanese  amendment,  even  though  Baron  Makino 
said  that  "  the  immediate  realization  of  the  ideal  of 
equality  was  not  proposed,"  was  so  ostensibly  intended 
to  lay  the  basis  for  what  Americans  would  consider  as 
interference  in  their  right  to  regulate  immigration  that 
its  adoption  by  the  league  proved  inadvisable.  More- 
over, the  Japanese  made  no  secret  of  their  ultimate 
aim.  As  one  of  the  men  associated  with  the  Japanese 
?iiission  in  Paris  informed  me:     "It  is  not  only  that 


68  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

we  object  to  the  fact  that  our  working  classes  are 
barred  from  the  United  States.  Our  professional 
classes  would  like  to  go  there.  They  comprise  men  of 
culture  and  training;  lawyers,  dentists,  physicians, 
scientists,  and  technicians,  who  see  no  reason  why  they 
should  be  barred  from  the  United  States  when  that  is 
a  field  where  they  could  progress  and  be  happy,  and 
when  America  places  no  barrier  in  the  way  of  Euro- 
peans who  are  no  better  than  illiterates." 

Two  interesting  proposals  were  made  at  this  time. 
One  was  that  French  should  be  the  official  language  of 
the  league.  The  other  was  tlwit  Brussels  should  be  its 
seat.  President  Poincare  of  France  proposed  the  first. 
He  pointed  to  the  fact  that  French  has  been  the  ac- 
cepted language  of  international  intercourse  and  that 
the  qualities  of  the  language  make  it  well  fitted  for  docu- 
ments of  a  legal  character.  He  said  that  French  was 
the  official  language  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna;  at  the 
negotiations  of  1871,  when  Germany  was  the  victor; 
at  the  Congress  of  Berlin  in  1878 ;  at  the  Madrid  con- 
ference on  Morocco  in  1880 ;  at  the  Algeciras  confer- 
ence and  the  two  peace  conferences  of  The  Hague.  The 
choice  of  the  language  was  finally  left  to  the  league 
itself. 

The  second  proposal  threw  an  unusual  light  on  the 
attitude  of  European  governments  toward  the  league. 
The  movement  to  win  the  league  for  Brussels  began 
early  in  the  year  and  led  to  the  adoption  of  resolutions 
and  the  writing  of  numerous  letters  to  Paris.  Brussels 
decided  that  the  Egmont  Palace  was  most  suitable  for 
the  league,  and  plans  were  discussed  for  its  furnishing. 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  69 

Paul  Hymans,  Belgian  Minister  of  Eoreign  Affairs,  on 
April  11,  presented  the  request  that  Brussels  be  named. 
President  Wilson  objected  strongly  to  this  choice  and 
felt  called  upon  to  give  his  reasons.  He  said  that  there 
could  be  no  reconciliation  between  the  peoples  of  Eu- 
rope if  the  woes  of  Belgium  were  to  be  shown  to  the 
Germans  every  time  the  league  met.  The  league,  which 
would  include  Germany  as  well  as  Belgium,  could  not 
meet  in  "  a  city  which  incarnates  the  enmity  between 
the  races  —  a  city  which  has  been  wronged,  but  which 
makes  reconciliation  distant  because  of  these  wrongs.'' 
The  two  conceptions  of  the  league  —  American  and  Eu- 
ropean ■ —  stood  in  sharp  contrast.  By  a  vote  of  twelve 
out  of  eighteen  the  proposal  of  M.  Hymans  was  de- 
feated and  Geneva  was  chosen.  Great  Britain  in  this 
instance,  as  in  that  of  Japan's  amendment,  voted  with 
the  United  States,  and  Prance  voted  with  Belgium. 
The  remarks  of  President  Wilson  led  to  a  bitter  attack 
on  him  in  the  Belgian  and  Parisian  newspapers. 

The  second  draft  of  the  covenant  of  the  League  of 
Nations  was  adopted  at  the  plenary  session  of  April  28 
and  was  then  ready  to  be  incorporated  in  the  treaty 
of  peace.  Although  many  of  the  nations  had  made 
concessions  to  the  points  of  view  of  others,  all  pledged 
their  adherence  to  the  league.  Many  of  the  conces- 
sions had  been  made  to  retain  the  good  will  of  the 
American  people,  for  without  this  all  Europe  knew  that 
the  league  would  fail.  The  covenant  was  now  ready 
for  the  study  of  all  the  world,  for  the  governments  of 
most  of  the  world  would  need  to  adopt  it  to  make  it 
effective.     And  that  Europe  would  approve  it  was  a 


70  THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS 

foregone  conclusion.  The  eyes  of  all  the  nations  turned 
to  the  country  from  which  this  new  charter  of  liberties 
had  come.  What  would  be  the  verdict  of  the  American 
people  ? 


CHAPTER  V 

M.  Clemenceau  becomes   the   victim  of  an  assassin's   bullet,  and 
proves  that  his  physique  is  as  strong  as  his  will  is  firm. 

"  This  morning  at  8 :45  o'clock,"  bes^ins  a  French 
news  report  for  February  19,  in  the  year  of  the  great 
peace,  "  just  after  he  had  entered  his  automobile  and 
started  for  his  bureau  M.  Clemenceau  was  .  .  .  shot !  '' 

Could  any  announcement  have  proved  more  electrical 
in  its  effect  on  the  Peace  Conference,  Clemenceau, 
president  of  the  council  and  minister  of  war, — "  the 
tiger  of  France,"  they  called  him, —  the  man  who  had 
virtually  exercised  the  powers  of  dictator  since  ^N'ovem- 
ber,  1917,  when  the  French  people  called  for  his  iron 
hand  and  his  indomitable  will  —  Clemenceau,  the  vic- 
tor, had  been  shot ! 

Truly  the  Peace  Conference  of  Paris  was  fated  to 
have  its  share  of  highly  colored,  dramatic  incidents. 

When  word  reached  me  the  deed  had  only  been  com- 
mitted a  few  minutes  before.  The  day  was  still  young 
as  days  go  in  Paris.  The  diamond  tradesmen  on  the 
Rue  de  la  Paix  were  slowly  winding  up  the  great 
iron  window  shutters  that  they  put  down  every  night 
in  expectation  of  riot  or  revolution.  Clerks,  stenog- 
raphers, and  salesmen  were  still  pouring  out  of  the 
"  Metro  "  station  at  the  Opera  like  a  flood,  and  flowing 
out  into  the  streets  that  radiate  from  the  place  like 
spokes  of  a  wheel  from  the  hub.     Lieutenant  Vallee 

71 


72  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Appel  of  the  lOOtli  Infantry  had  just  come  in  to  tell 
me  how  rotten  it  feels  to  be  transfen-ed  to  the  faculty 
of  law  of  the  A.E.F.  university  at  Beaune  when  your 
division  has  been  ordered  to  sail.  Tough  luck !  And 
then  a  friendly  Y.M.C.A.  man  rushed  in  breathlessly 
with  the  news. 

"  Let 's  go !  "  I  cried  to  Appel,  and  in  a  jiffy  we  bolted 
down  the  stairs  and  into  our  car,  and  at  once  the  chauf- 
feur headed  for  the  Ministry  of  War.  Down  the  Boule- 
vard des  Capucines,  down  the  Rue  Royale,  across  the 
Place  de  la  Concorde  we  went  at  breakneck  speed,  with 
just  time  for  a  glance  at  Old  Glory  flying  over  there  on 
the  roof  of  the  Crillon.  And  the  flags  on  the  ministry  of 
marine  were  still  at  full  staff. 

"  Thank  God !  "  I  said  to  myself,  ''  It 's  not  a  mur- 
der—  yet."  Then  I  reflected  that  even  if  it  was,  the 
ministry  might  not  yet  have  heard  of  it,  nor  could  the 
news  have  reached  these  Parisians  on  the  place,  going  so 
unostentatiously  about  their  business. 

The  Ministry  of  War  occupies  one  of  those  old  formal 
French  homes  that  was  long  the  domicile  of  men  asso- 
ciated with  the  political  fortunes  of  France.  Built  in 
1714,  it  still  retains  its  ancient  paved  forecourt  and  its 
formal  main  entrance.  Marshal  Richelieu,  grand- 
nephew  of  the  famous  cardinal,  lived  here  once,  as  also 
did  Lucien  Bonaparte,  and  now  it  serves  the  state 
equally  as  well  as  it  served  the  titled  folk  of  other 
days. 

There  were  soldiers  with  bayonets  fixed  standing 
guard  before  their  little  toy-houses  on  each  side  of  the 
great  gate,  and  just  within  gold-braided  attendants  at- 


THE  rOURTEE:^'  POINTS  73 

tempted  again  to  exercise  their  time-honored  function 
of  retarding  the  inquirer;  but  this  time  ^^  journalist " 
proved  to  be  the  password.  A  blue-coated  official  di- 
rected me  not  to  the  offices  of  M.  Clemenceau  in  the 
ministry  itself,  but  to  a  little  one-story  building  in  an 
adjoining  court,  just  around  the  corner  from  the  con- 
cierge's house.  It  was  a  little  plaster  structure,  huddled 
close  to  its  larger  neighbor,  with  tiny  windows,  and 
overgrown  with  vines.  The  whole  group  was  a  sort 
of  military  storehouse,  but  the  little  house  proved  to  be 
a  bureau^  and  within  I  found  half  a  dozen  representa- 
tives of  the  newspapers  of  Paris  seated  around  a  long 
table.  They  were  listening  intently  to  the  communica- 
tion being  repeated  to  them  by  a  man  who  stood  at  a 
telephone  at  one  end  of  the  room  and  emitted  his  in- 
formation in  short,  sharp  barks.  It  was  indeed  true: 
Clemenceau  had  been  shot. 

At  8  :45,  yes.  Had  left  his  home  in  the  Rue  Frank- 
lin en  route  to  the  ministry.  Entered  his  limousine,  as 
always.  The  car  turned  the  corner  for  the  Rue  Deles- 
sert.  Here  was  a  little  raised  ''  island  "  in  the  center 
of  the  street.  On  it  stood  a  man.  The  chauffeur  ob- 
served him,  passed  on.  The  man  raised  his  hand.  He 
pointed  a  revolver  at  the  car.  He  fired.  Once. 
Twice.  Running  after  the  car,  he  fired  point-blank 
again  and  again.  Ten  times,  ten  bullets.  They 
lodged:  seven  in  the  tonneau;  three  at  the  right  side, 
where  sat  the  president  of  the  council.  The  car  turned, 
sped  back  to  the  Rue  Franklin.  The  premier  dis- 
mounted. "  It  is  nothing,"  he  said.  '^  It  is  nothing.'' 
The  examination  showed  a  bullet-wound  in  the  right 


U  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

shoulder-blade,  hit  from  behind;  a  flesh  wound  near 
the  lung. 

There  was  not  a  sound  in  the  room  but  the  voice  of 
the  man  who  snapped  out  his  remarks  in  short,  broken 
phrases.  Then  came  quiet,  disturbed  only  by  the  sound 
of  pencils  moving  across  the  white  and  yellow  pads  of 
paper. 

Clemenceau  — '''  Pere  de  la  Vidoire/'  the  victim  of 
an  assassin,  and  yet  these  men,  Parisians  and  French- 
men, sat  quiet  and  imperturbable  at  their  work. 
The  legend  of  the  excitable  Frenchman  died  there, 
if  it  had  not  already  breathed  its  last  in  the 
war. 

The  assassin  was  a  lad  of  twenty-three,  an  immature 
youngster ;  Emile- Jules-Henri  Cottin,  a  worker  in  wood, 
member  of  a  communist  federation,  and  known  to  his 
intimates  as  "  Mildou.''  He  was  a  lad  who  listened 
intently  and  took  seriously  the  whispered  words  of  men 
who  gathered  of  evenings  in  a  communist  club  and  spoke 
of  the  injustices  in  life,  who  advocated  the  abolition 
of  all  authority  as  the  remedy  for  an  imperfect  dis- 
tribution of  the  world's  goods,  and  the  destruction  of 
the  ruling  element  in  much  the  same  manner  that  a 
privileged  class  had  been  destroyed  in  France  120  years 
before. 

^'  I  am  a  Frenchman,  an  anarchist,"  said  Cottin. 

'^  ^  The  animal  shoots  well,'  I  thought  when  I  first 
heard  the  bullets,"  M.  Clemenceau  explained  to  the 
President  of  the  Republic,  M.  Poincare,  twenty  min- 
utes after  the  assault.  ^' '  He  shoots  too  well,'  I  said 
when  I  found  myself  hit.     And  then  I  thought,   '  At 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  T5 

least  my  enemies  will  no  longer  be  able  to  say  that  I 
have  n't  ballast  in  my  head  —  lead  ballast ! '  " 

The  hatred  of  men  who  differ  in  political  thinking 
from  men  in  public  office  sometimes  urges  them  to  com- 
mit violence.  They  see  misrule  in  all  authority,  in 
every  ruler  an  oppressor.  Too  often  the  blood  of  po- 
litical leaders  has  flowed  upon  the  soil  of  Erance. 
Within  the  memory  of  living  men  attempts  have  been 
made  against  the  lives  of  men  like  M.  Germain  Casse, 
deputy  of  the  Seine,  who  was  attacked  on  December  9, 
1886,  by  the  sculptor  Baffler,  who  thought  Casse  had 
been  unfaithful  to  his  duty  as  a  democratic  deputy; 
Jules  Eerry,  who  was  attacked  on  December  10,  1887, 
in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  by  Aubertin  on  the  sup- 
position that  Eerry  was  allied  with  Bismarck;  Sadi 
Carnot,  President  of  Erance,  who  died  June  25,  1894, 
from  a  wound  inflicted  by  the  Italian  anarchist  Caserio. 
Presidents  Eelix  Eaure,  Emile  Loubet,  and  Eallieres, 
were  all  the  objects  of  attacks  that  did  not  prove  fatal, 
and  flnally  Jean  Jaures,  the  paciflst  socialist  leader, 
was  shot  to  death  on  August  1,  1914,  proving  that 
neither  conservative  nor  radical  is  spared. 

"  The  condition  of  the  president  of  the  council  is 
satisfactory,"  said  an  official  bulletin  issued  at  the  bed- 
side by  the  physicians,  Tuffier,  Gosset,  and  Laubry. 
The  bullets  of  Cottin  had  not  made  a  mortal  wound. 

But  what  if  they  had  ?  Did  Erance  reckon  with  that 
contingency  ?  Was  there  a  leader  prepared  to  carry  out 
the  aims  for  national  expansion  that  M.  Clemenceau 
had  advocated  so  w^ell?  Was  the  delegation  of  the 
republic,  moved  and  directed  by  M.  Clemenceau,  able  to 


76  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

continue  the  far-reaching  policy  of  its  leader?  Who 
would  fight  for  Erance  at  the  peace  table  with  that  bull- 
dog tenacity  of  his  —  the  fight  for  a  strong,  independ- 
ent, fearless,  and  greater  France,  a  France  that  should 
progress  without  the  threat  of  invasion  hanging  like  a 
shadow  over  her  national  life  ? 

All  through  his  career  he  had  fought  with  the  hitting 
power  of  a  Eoosevelt.  He  came  to  Paris  from  the 
Vendee  in  1860,  in  the  days  of  the  glory  of  the  Sec- 
ond Empire.  His  political  life  really  began  with  the 
war  in  which  the  Prussian  host  first  trampled  upon  the 
fields  of  France.  He  had  visited  the  United  States  as 
a  young  man,  taught  school  there,  and  translated  John 
Stuart  Mills's  "  August  Comte  and  Positivism,"  and 
married.  Then  he  returned  to  France.  He  gained  his 
first  public  office  in  1870  as  mayor  of  the  Montmartre 
district  of  Paris.  He  supported  Gambetta,  and  signed 
the  famous  protest  of  fidelity  to  Alsace-Lorraine  when 
these  provinces  were  torn  from  France.  He  was  al- 
ways a  patriot,  he  spoke  always  for  the  integrity  of 
France.  He  tried  to  reconcile  the  government  at  Ver- 
sailles with  the  commune  at  Paris,  and  in  1871,  as  a 
radical  member  of  the  National  Assembly  from  the  De- 
partment of  the  Seine,  he  voted  against  the  ignominious 
peace  treaty.  He  served  in  the  municipal  council  of 
Paris,  and  by  1875  had  become  its  president.  In  1876 
he  became  conspicuous  by  pleading  for  amnesty  for 
the  communards.  He  was  courageous,  he  was  brave,  he 
was  sincere.  Strange  that  in  these  early  days  this  man, 
now  laid  low  by  the  bullet  of  an  anarchist,  had  been 
the  leader  of  the  extreme  Left  in  the  chamber!     But 


THE  FOUETEEN  POIISTTS  77 

the  Left  of  those  days,  radical  though  it  was,  was  far 
removed  from  anarchy. 

When  he  reached  the  age  of  forty  he  was  a  power, 
and  as  he  grew  in  years  and  experience  ministries 
trembled  when  he  mounted  the  tribune.  Grevy,  Jules 
Ferry,  Ereycinet  felt  his  tremendous  hitting  power. 
Boulanger  rose  and  fell  as  Clemenceau  gave  and  with- 
drew his  confidence.  Through  it  all  he  was  a  con- 
firmed supporter  of  the  republic.  Defeated  eventually 
in  1893  for  reelection  to  the  chamber,  principally  be- 
cause of  his  opposition  to  an  alliance  with  Russia,  he 
decided  to  devote  his  whole  time  to  journalism. 

Many  of  the  great  political  leaders  of  France  have 
spoken  daily  to  a  large  public  through  a  newspaper. 
Clemenceau  reveled  in  his  opportunity.  It  is  signifi- 
cant to  note  that  associated  with  him  in  his  earliest 
ventures  were  Alexandre  Millerand,  whom  he  has  just 
made  Governor-General  of  Alsace-Lorraine;  Stephen 
Pichon,  now  minister  of  foreign  affairs;  and  Georges 
Languerre.  In  1880  he  had  founded  his  political 
daily,  ''  La  Justice."  In  1900  he  founded  "  Le  Bloc  " 
as  a  weekly,  and  edited  it  until  1902.  Again  elected 
to  the  senate,  he  found  himself  able  to  work  with  the 
socialist  radicals.  In  1903  he  took  charge  of 
^^  L'Aurore  ''  and  began  the  two  great  fights  of  his  ca- 
reer, one  for  the  revision  of  the  sentence  of  Dreyfus, 
whom  he  believed  innocent,  and  the  other  for  the  sep- 
aration of  church  and  state  in  France.  He  succeeded 
in  both.  In  1905  he  warned  France  of  the  German 
menace  in  Tangiers  in  a  series  of  noteworthy  articles. 
In  1906  he  became  minister  of  the  interior.     Taking 


Y8  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

the  responsibility  for  quelling  a  strike  of  miners  in  the 
Department  of  Pas-de-Calais,  he  showed  his  determina- 
tion by  calling  out  the  military  and  putting  down  dis- 
order by  force.  This  act  caused  the  enmity  of  the  so- 
cialists.    He  was  never  again  a  radical  leader. 

In  1907  he  became  president  of  the  council,  Premier 
of  France.  For  two  and  a  half  years  he  served  in  this 
office,  and  one  result  was  the  growing  cordiality  between 
France  and  England,  political  enemies  up  to  this  time. 
Slowly  they  came  together  in  that  entente  that  was  to 
prove  the  salvation  of  France  when  the  great  blow 
was  struck  in  1914.  That  it  would  come  eventually  M. 
Clemenceau  saw  as  well  as  any  one  and  better  than 
most  men.  In  1912  he  had  already  begun  his  fight 
for  the  law  to  enforce  three  years  of  military  service, 
in  order  to  give  France  a  larger  number  of  men  ready 
for  instant  action  when  the  hour  struck.  There  were 
many  w^ho  questioned  the  expediency  of  his  plan,  but 
none  his  motives. 

Long  before  1914  he  had  laid  down  his  portfolio. 
In  May,  1913,  he  was  an  editor  again,  "  a  free  lion," 
as  he  said  once,  publishing  a  daily  newspaper  entitled 
^^L'Homme  Libre,"— '^  The  Free  Man."  When  the 
war  came,  he  unlimbered  his  guns  for  victory.  He  de- 
manded that  every  inch  of  the  frontier  be  guarded  by  a 
French  bayonet.  He  pounded  home  the  need  of  a  com- 
prehensive program  for  the  manufacture  of  munitions. 
One  might  have  expected  him,  grown  old  in  public 
service,  to  defend  antiquated  methods,  to  be  a  stickler 
for  things  as  they  were.     On  the  contrary,  he  spoke 


THE  FOUKTEE:Nr  POIISTTS  79 

for  radical  changes  in  military  and  civil  organization. 
He  sacrificed  all  to  an  end  —  victory. 

'Not  all  that  he  wrote  found  favor  with  the  heads  of 
the  Government.  The  censor's  pencil  eradicated  much 
of  his  excellent  argument.  His  newspaper  appeared 
with  large  white  spaces.  Resourceful  to  the  last,  he 
turned  the  laugh  on  his  critics  by  calling  his  journal 
"  L'Homme  Enchaine,"— "  The  Man  Enchained." 
And  when  all  the  more  moderate  and  temporizing  lead- 
ers had  failed  and  the  discontent  that  followed  the  cam- 
paign of  1917  forced  them  out  of  office,  the  nation 
turned  to  M.  Clemenceau,  whose  gifts  had  been  only 
partly  made  use  of  as  head  of  the  commission  of  ex- 
ternal affairs.  Again  he  became  minister  of  war  and 
president  of  the  council. 

When  he  took  office  they  asked  him  what  policy  he 
would  pursue.  Remember  his  answer  in  that  memor- 
able iNTovember,  1917  ? 

^'  Je  fats  la  guerre,"  he  said.     "  I  make  war." 

It  fell  to  him,  redoubtable  fighter,  seventy-seven  years 
old,  not  only  to  make  war,  but  peace.  The  peace  that 
France  wins  out  of  the  negotiations  is  the  peace  of 
Clemenceau,  the  best  possible  peace  from  the  point  of 
view  of  a  confirmed  nationalist,  a  believer  in  the  ma- 
terial growth  of  France,  a  diplomat  of  the  old  order, 
who  demands  security  against  aggression,  strong  bound- 
aries, reparation  for  damages,  and  who  believes  that  no 
crime  should  go  unpunished.  In  the  discussions  of  the 
modern  liberals  who  believe  in  the  forgiveness  of  inter- 
national sins  he  takes  no  part;  he  has  felt  too  deeply 


80  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

the  suffering  of  1870  and  1914,  and  all  the  years  of 
German  browbeating  that  lie  between. 

Paul  Scott  Mowrer  once  characterized  the  four  great 
leaders  of  the  Peace  Conference  in  a  sentence.  Lloyd 
George,  he  said,  represented  the  liberal  imperialism  of 
Great  Britain;  Orlando,  the  anxiety  and  uncertainty  of 
Italy;  Wilson,  the  idealism  of  America;  and  Clemen- 
ceau,  the  fear  of  France.     The  fear  —  and  the  hope. 

Those  "were  anxious  days  in  Paris.  As  the  X-ray  ex- 
amination proceeded,  and  the  wounds  of  the  premier 
were  found  to  be  a  trifle  more  serious  than  the  first 
bulletins  had  led  the  public  to  believe,  Paris  experienced 
a  sensation  that  reminded  many  of  those  dark  days  in 
1917.  At  the  Hotel  de  Crillon  Americans  who  had 
watched  the  tactics  of  the  aged  leader  spoke  of  the  ef- 
fect his  absence  would  have  on  the  conference.  To 
them  he  represented  an  antagonist  of  no  mean  talents, 
for  he  was  fighting  to  gain  a  position  of  strategic  ad- 
vantages for  France.  Americans  disagreed  to  some  ex- 
tent at  least  with  his  views  on  clear,  explicit  punish- 
ment of  the  enemy,  and  on  his  theory  that  Germany 
should  be  made  to  pay  a  sum  to  be  determined  from 
time  to  time  in  the  future,  as  the  amount  of  the  damage 
and  the  assets  of  the  German  nation  were  more  clearly 
visualized.  America  disagreed  with  his  view  that  the 
armies  of  the  Allies  should  be  ready  to  come  to  the  aid 
of  France  the  moment  an  enemy  appeared  on  the  hori- 
zon. ISTot  that  America  meant  to  deny  aid  to  an  an- 
cient friend,  but  because  no  one  in  Paris  could  pledge 
the  American  people  to  a  future  program  that  involved 
the  making  of  war.     All  these  were  points  of  conflict 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  81 

between  the  American  commissioners  and  M.  Clemen- 
ceau,  and  yet  they  honored  the  man  and  expressed 
hope  for  his  quick  recovery^  so  that  no  other  hands  would 
need  to  take  up  the  portfolio  that  he  held. 

After  his  first  visit  to  the  home  in  the  Eue  Eranklin, 
Secretary  Lansing  said  that  the  condition  of  M.  Clemen- 
ceau  was  so  favorable  that  important  questions  might 
easily  be  referred  to  him  in  the  event  his  vote  was 
needed.  Besides,  he  gave  his  opinion  that  the  work 
of  the  conference  had  been  so  well  organized  by  M. 
Clemenceau  and  had  progressed  to  such  an  advanced 
stage  that  most  of  it  was  in  the  hands  of  committees 
who  could  continue  consideration  of  the  problems  be- 
fore them  without  interruption.  M.  Clemenceau  had 
been  a  driving  force,  seeking  to  expedite  the  work.  He 
himself  declared  after  the  shooting  that  he  hoped  it 
would  act  as  a  spur  upon  the  other  members  of  the 
conference,  so  that  they  might  more  quickly  come  to  a 
settlement  of  all  outstanding  problems. 

Heads  of  states,  members  of  the  Conference,  went 
out  of  their  way  to  show  their  sympathy  for  the 
stricken  leader.  The  American  President  spoke  of 
his  horror  at  the  deed  in  a  wireless  message  from  the 
U.  S.  S.  George  Washington,  then  nearing  New  York. 
King  Albert  of  Belgium,  King  George  of  England,  King 
Alphonso  of  Spain,  Sir  Robert  Borden,  prime  minister 
of  Canada,  King  Victor  Emmanuel  III  of  Italy,  and 
Pope  Benedict  were  among  the  first  to  send  messages  of 
sympathy.  The  members  of  the  American  mission  in 
Paris  expressed  their  resentment  at  the  deed,  and  added 
that  "  they  rejoiced  in  his  providential  escape  and  con- 


82  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

gratulated  the  people  of  France  that  in  the  settlement 
of  peace  and  in  the  rehabilitation  of  France  thej  are 
to  continue  to  receive  the  benefit  of  that  valued  pa- 
triotism and  seasoned  statesmanship  which  your  excel- 
lency so  strenuously  and  successfully  exerted  in  their 
interest  during  the  travail  of  war." 

Their  hopes  were  to  be  fulfilled.  Two  weeks  later 
M.  Clemenceau  had  overcome  the  dangers  of  both 
hemorrhage  and  infection  and  was  back  at  his  post.  As 
he  breezed  into  the  conference-room  on  the  first  day 
back,  he  met  his  old  friend  and  diplomatic  colleague  of 
other  days,  Henry  White  of  the  American  mission. 

"  Well,  young  fellow,"  exclaimed  Clemenceau,  whack- 
ing the  American  representative  heartily  on  the  back 
with  the  flat  of  his  hand,  "  have  you  got  a  bullet  in  your 
body  ?  " 

It  came  about  that  Cottin  was  duly  placed  on  trial 
and  found  guilty,  and  the  verdict  of  the  court  was 
death.  And  a  short  time  later  Villain,  who  shot  Jean 
Jaures,  the  famous  socialist  and  pacifist,  on  the  eve  of 
the  war  in  1914,  was  acquitted.  There  was  subject 
matter  for  socialist  demonstrations ! 

It  is  true  that  there  were  extenuating  circumstances 
in  the  case  of  Villain  which  would  have  suggested  clem- 
ency. He  had  been  in  prison  four  and  one-half  years. 
He  was  believed  to  be  mentally  deficient.  But  an  ac- 
quittal had  not  been  looked  for. 

^'  How  is  it  possible,"  commented  the  '^  Lanterne," 
"  not  to  make  this  comparison  which  stupefies  the  peo- 
ple:    Cottin  for  having  put  M.  Clemenceau  for  three 


THE  FOURTEEI^  POmTS  83 

days  on  the  sick  list  is  sentenced  to  death ;  Villain,  who 
lodged  a  bullet  in  M.  Jaures'  head,  is  absolved." 

A  few  weeks  later  M.  Clemenceau  addressed  the 
court  asking  that  the  sentence  of  Cottin  be  mitigated. 
And  it  was  done.  A  sentence  of  imprisonment  for  life 
replaced  that  of  death. 


CHAPTER  VI 

An  invitation  to  tea  lures  me  to  the  Hotel  Lutetia,  and  I  learn 
how  40,000,000  human  beings  fare  on  the  other  side  of  the  world. 

After  all,  it  was  only  an  innocent  invitation  to  a  tea- 
party.  It  came  unannounced,  an  engraved  card  in 
pleasing  English  script,  saying  that  Mr.  Lou  Tseng 
Tsiang  requested  the  pleasure  of  your  company  at  tea 
on  Tuesday,  March  4,  from  4  to  6  o'clock,  and  adding, 
in  smaller  letters  at  the  lower  right  hand  corner, 
^'  Chinese  delegation.  Hotel  Lutetia." 

What  could  it  mean  but  a  cup  of  fragrant  tea  and 
a  pleasant  chat  with  the  scholarly  alumni  of  American 
universities  who  represented  in  Paris  the  interests  of 
the  Chinese  nation  ?  And  yet  it  might  have  been  said 
that  tea-parties  are  not  without  significance.  There  was 
that  little  event  in  Boston  Harbor,  for  instance,  which 
began  with  tea,  and  ended  with  another  treaty  of  Ver- 
sailles. And  Mr.  Lou  Tseng  Tsiang,  China's  minister 
of  foreign  affairs,  and  his  scholarly  delegation  were 
men  entirely  too  valuable  to  their  country,  one  must 
admit,  to  permit  them  to  while  away  their  time  at  tea- 
parties.     The  invitation  suggested  many  possibilities. 

And  so  it  came  about  that  a  goodly  company  gathered 
on  the  designated  afternoon  in  the  spacious  parlors  of 
Hotel  Lutetia,  on  the  Boulevard  Raspail.  Hardly  a 
Parisian  atmosphere  this,  for  there  were  polished,  self- 
effacing   Chinese  portiers   at   the   doors,    and   Chinese 

34 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  85 

valets  in  livery  in  the  corridors  and  in  the  anterooms. 
And  in  the  salons  we  found  those  men  who,  if  true 
inbred  courtesy  had  won  kingdoms,  would  long  have 
ruled  the  world.  Diplomats  from  the  other  side  of  the 
earth,  immaculate  in  European  afternoon  attire;  gen- 
erals of  the  armies  of  China  in  their  attractive  light- 
blue  uniforms;  admirals  and  officers  of  the  Chinese 
navy  —  all  were  a  study  in  correct  deportment  and 
bearing. 

The  chroniclers  who  told  of  the  gaiety  of  Vienna  in 
1814  wrote  much  about  the  brilliant  receptions,  the 
colorful  salons,  the  gay  social  life  that  went  hand  in 
hand  with  the  gifts  of  cities  and  the  theft  of  provinces. 
The  peace-conference  side  of  Paris  had  developed  but 
little  colorful  social  life  so  far,  and  no  one  had  even 
pretended  to  settle  the  fates  of  kingdoms  and  empires 
at  a  luncheon  at  the  Meurice  or  a  formal  dinner  at  the 
Eitz.  But  when  the  social  side  of  the  Paris  conference 
comes  to  be  mentioned  in  future,  no  one  can  well  afford 
to  pass  by  this  modest  function  at  the  Lutetia.  Some 
of  those  who  "  assisted,"  as  the  Erench  say,  will  recall 
it  for  its  unique  combination  of  political  and  social  dis- 
cussion ;  others  will  remember  the  wide  tables  that  ex- 
tended along  one  entire  side  of  an  immense  room,  loaded 
down  with  confections  sufficient  for  a  regiment  of  hun- 
gry men  —  confections  that  in  a  Paris  devoid  of  pas- 
tries and  bonbons  seemed  like  the  cargo  of  Solomon's 
ships  come  from  Tarshish. 

What  it  should  be  remembered  for  is  that  it  was 
China's  first  formal  plea  to  the  world  for  release  from 
the  fetters  that  bound  her  national  existence  —  a  plea 


&6  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

that  later  was  to  play  an  important  role  in  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  conference. 

Stepping  into  the  middle  of  the  salon,  Mr.  Lou  Tseng 
Tsiang,  our  host,  clapped  his  hands  and  beamed  upon 
the  assembly.  In  that  wide  circle  he  beheld  the  faces 
of  men  who  to-morrow  would  carry  his  words  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  He  rose  masterly  to  his  opportunity. 
It  was  indeed  charming,  he  said,  that  his  guests  had 
deigned  to  accept  the  invitation  which  went  forth  in 
his  name  to  meet  the  Chinese  delegation.  He  spoke 
of  the  friendly  relations  that  existed  between  China  and 
the  nations  represented  here.  He  touched  lightly  on 
China's  position  at  the  Peace  Conference,  suggesting 
that  perhaps  her  wants  and  needs  were  a  sealed  book  to 
the  nations  who  dwelt  in  the  West.  It  was  a  most 
happy  occasion  for  the  delegates  to  acquaint  their  guests 
with  the  aims  of  China.  Would  they  listen  a  few  mo- 
ments until  Mr.  Chenting  Thomas  Wang  could  speak 
more  in  detail  on  these  aims  ? 

The  minister  bowed,  and  Mr.  Wang,  who  has  held 
the  portfolio  of  agriculture  and  commerce,  stepped  for- 
ward, a  quiet,  self-possessed  man,  with  well-defined 
Western  traits,  and  with  the  key  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa  at 
his  watch-chain  as  ample  evidence  of  where  he  got 
them.  It  was  Mr.  Wang,  versed  in  the  art  of  saying 
a  great  deal  in  a  few  words,  who  placed  succinctly  before 
us  China's  "  case." 

What  Mr.  Wang  told  us  covered  the  whole  field  of  the 
Chinese  question.  It  dealt  not  alone  with  the  relations 
of  China  and  Japan,  which  presumably  was  close  to  the 
heart  of  a  Chinese  diplomat;  but  touched  on  all  the 


THE  FOUETEEi^  POINTS  87 

foreign  influences  in  China.  Mr.  Wang  introduced 
these  subjects  on  the  ground  that  the  Chinese  question 
was  one  of  the  few  great  problems  that  the  Peace  Con- 
ference must  solve  if  it  aimed  to  prevent  or  minimize 
the  chances  of  war,  and  that,  "  stripped  of  its  minor 
features,  the  Chinese  question  may  be  said  to  center 
on  the  maintenance  of  the  independence  and  integrity 
of  China,  which  has  been  guaranteed  in  a  series  of  con- 
ventions and  agreements  concluded  severally  by  Great 
Britain,  France,  Kussia,  and  the  United  States  with 
Japan.''  Because  China  was  a  peaceful  state  and  not 
a  war-making  state,  Mr.  Wang  said  that  it  was,  and 
still  is,  a  prey  to  the  kind  of  imperialism  asserting  it- 
self in  territorial  aggrandizement  and  in  the  creation 
of  preferential  rights,  interests,  and  privileges  in  the 
great  Chinese  regions  like  Shan-tung,  Manchuria,  Mon- 
golia, Fu-kien,  and  elsewhere  in  the  rich  mineral  areas 
of  the  Yang-tse  valley.  "  The  solution,  therefore,  of 
the  Chinese  question  involves  the  liberation  or  re- 
dress of  China  from  the  burdens  and  conditions  im- 
posed on  her  in  the  interests  of  an  aggressive  imperial- 
ism. .  .  .  Within  this  category  of  burdens  is  included 
the  system  of  imperialistic  rights,  interests,  and  priv- 
ileges which  Germany  established  in  the  province  of 
Shan-tung  in  1898  as  compensation  for  the  death  of 
two  German  missionaries." 

Shan-tung!  Let  us  here  leave  Mr.  Wang  as  he 
continues  his  discourse  on  the  position  of  China  during 
the  war,  and  examine  more  in  detail  the  claims  that  the 
Chinese  delegation  presented  to  the  Peace  Conference. 
For  it  may  well  be  said  that  the  arguments  given  to  the 


88  THE  ADVEIS^TURES  OF 

world  at  this  innocent  little  tea-party  continue  to  be 
heard  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe,  and  that  out  of  the 
presentation  of  China's  claims  and  the  conference  ac- 
tion thereon  has  arisen  a  controversy  that  may  easily 
be  the  prelude  to  a  larger  diplomatic  struggle. 

Germany  had  long  been  on  the  lookout  for  a  naval 
base  on  the  Pacific  coast  when  the  killing  of  the  two 
missionaries  in  the  prefecture  of  Tsao-chow-fu,  in  Shan- 
tung, in  Xovember,  1897,  gave  her  a  pretext  for  forcing 
her  demands  on  China.  The  convention  of  March  6, 
1898,  signed  by  Li  Hung  Chang  for  China  and  by 
Baron  von  Heyting  for  Germany,  gave  the  latter:  (1) 
a  zone  of  fifty  kilometers  around  the  bay  of  Kiao-chau 
for  the  passage  of  German  troops  and  a  lease  of  ninety- 
nine  years  on  both  sides  of  the  entrance  to  the  bay  of 
Kiao-chau  with  certain  islands;  (2)  the  concession  to 
construct  two  lines  of  railway  in  Shan-tung  and  to  de- 
velop mining  properties  located  within  fifteen  kilo- 
meters on  each  side  of  the  railways,  both  railways  and 
mining  enterprise  to  be  developed  by  Chino-Germap. 
companies;  (3)  compelled  the  Chinese  Government  to 
agree  to  make  the  first  offer  to  German  manufacturers 
and  merchants  whenever  foreign  assistance  of  whatever 
nature  was  needed  in  the  province.  This  led  to  the 
building  of  the  Tsing-tau  Tsinan  railway,  434  kilo- 
meters long,  opened  in  June,  1904,  and  the  Yang-tse 
and  Tzechwan  collieries  and  the  Chinglingchen  iron- 
mines.  The  mining  interests  were  transferred  to  the 
railway  corporation  in  February,  1913.  On  Decem- 
ber 31,  1913,  China  granted  Germany  the  option  to 
finance,  construct,  and  supply  materials  for  two  lines 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  89 

of  railway,  one  at  Kaomi  to  a  point  on  the  Tientsin- 
Pukow  line  at  Hanchuan,  and  tlie  other  from  Tsinan 
to  a  point  on  the  Peking-Hankow  line  between  Shunteh 
and  Sinhsiang,  and  on  June  10,  1914,  Germany  obtained 
a  loan  option  on  any  westward  extension  of  the  Tsi-nan- 
Shunteh,  the  Chiefu-Wehsien  and  the  Tsining-Kaifeng 
lines.  In  1911  Germany  relinquished  the  rights  to 
mines  on  each  side  of  the  railway,  retaining  only  those 
named  heretofore. 

These  concessions  gave  Germany  a  sphere  of  influ- 
ence with  amazing  possibilities  of  development.  The 
Chinese  looked  on  with  grim  foreboding  and  despair  in 
their  hearts.  For  Shan-tung  represented  both  material 
and  sentimental  interests  for  the  Chinese.  It  was  the 
birthplace  of  Confucius.  It  possessed  38,347,000  in- 
habitants, entirely  Chinese,  limited  to  the  resources  of 
agriculture  in  a  province  of  35,976  square  miles  —  a 
population  almost  as  large  as  that  of  France  in  a  terri- 
tory only  one  fourth  as  large.  Tsing-tau  was  the  best 
natural  harbor  in  north  China,  and  its  natural  outlet. 
Within  the  zone  of  the  German  railway  concessions  were 
two  immense  coal-fields  and  an  iron-mine  containing 
40,000,000  tons  of  high-grade  ore.  Three  big  bitu- 
minous coal-fields,  with  a  reserve  of  at  least  1,000,000,- 
000  tons,  the  only  fields  within  economic  distance  of 
the  Yang-tse  iron-mines,  were  within  the  zone  of  the 
southern  extension  of  the  railroad. 

This  sums  up  the  tremendous  value  contained  in  the 
concessions  wrested  by  Germany  from  China.  It  gave 
Germany  a  great  sphere  of  interest  similar  to  those 
acquired  by  the  other  European  powers,  for  Russia  had 


9a  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

asserted  her  influence  in  northern  Manchuria,  Mon- 
golia, and  the  basin  of  the  Hwoangho ;  Great  Britain  was 
recognized  as  the  predominant  power  in  the  valleys 
of  the  Yang-tse-Kiang  and  in  the  center  of  China,  and 
France  made  her  power  felt  near  Hainan  and  Yuma  in 
the  south.  To  offset  the  German  concessions  at  Kiao- 
chau,  Russia  took  Port  Arthur;  England,  Wei-hai-wei; 
and  France,  Kwang-chow-wan. 

China  asked  the  Peace  Conference  for  the  direct  res- 
titution of  all  the  concessions  held  by  Germany.  But 
it  happened  that  they  were  now  in  the  hands  of  another 
nation  —  Japan,  herself  a  belligerent  and  the  chief  ac- 
tor in  the  ousting  of  the  Germans  from  the  far  East. 
Japan  early  in  the  war  asked  Germany  to  withdraw 
from  China  "  in  the  interests  of  peace  in  the  far  East.'' 
As  Germany  failed  to  comply,  Japan  declared  war 
on  August  23,  1914,  and  began  a  land  attack  against 
Tsing-tau.  A  small  number  of  English  troops  also 
took  part.  Tsing-tau  was  garrisoned  by  5,250  Ger- 
man troops  and  Austrian  reservists,  and  fell  Novem- 
ber 7,  1914.  The  Chinese  Government  asserted  that 
Chinese  territory  was  crossed  during  this  operation, 
and  protested  that  this  was  a  violation  of  Chinese 
neutrality.  At  the  conference  in  Paris  Chinese  dele- 
gates informed  me  that  China  made  an  attempt  early 
in  August,  1914,  to  join  the  Allies  in  the  war  against 
Germany  and  also  to  participate  in  the  attack  on  Tsing- 
tau,  but  was  advised  not  to  do  so,  because  this  action 
would  lead  to  "  complications  with  a  certain  power." 
By  reason  of  the  defeat  of  Germany  the  territory  was 
occupied  by  Japan  and  placed  under  military  control. 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  91 

Now  conies  the  transaction  that  has  given  rise  to 
much  controversy  and  which  the  Chinese  placed  before 
the  Peace  Conference  as  an  act  of  wanton  aggression. 
Japan  presented  to  China  the  proposals  for  a  treaty 
known  as  the  twenty-one  demands,  which  were  handed 
direct  to  Yuan  Shih  Kai,  the  President  of  China,  by 
the  Japanese  minister  in  Peking,  Hioki,  on  January  18, 
1915.  The  first  group  of  these  demands  dealt  with  the 
province  of  Shan-tung  and  virtually  made  the  Japanese 
the  successors  to  the  German  rights  and  concessions. 
The  proposals  brought  about  a  series  of  notes  and  con- 
ferences, during  which  several  modifications  were  per- 
mitted; but  on  May  7,  1915,  Japan  delivered  an  ulti- 
matum to  China,  demanding  that  they  be  accepted  forth- 
with. The  manner  in  which  these  demands  were  pre- 
sented has  been  described  as  grossly  overbearing  even 
by  Japanese  writers.  China,  however,  was  not  in  a 
position  to  reject  the  demands,  and  agreed  to  them  on 
May  8,  1915.  An  attempt  to  sound  out  the  European 
governments  and  the  United  States  and  get  their  sup- 
port had  brought  more  or  less  non-committal  replies,  the 
United  States  alone  informing  both  cabinets  that  it 
would  not  recognize  any  infringement  of  the  policy  of 
the  open  door  in  China. 

As  the  Peace  Conference  did  not  meet  to  consider  the 
whole  topic  of  the  rights  of  foreign  nations  in  China 
and  how  they  were  obtained,  it  is  obvious  that  only  that 
part  of  the  twenty-one  demands  which  deals  with  Shan- 
tung actually  concerned  the  conference.  The  docu- 
ments presented  to  the  Peace  Conference  show  these  to 
be  the  following  clauses: 


d2  THE  ADVEISTTURES  OF 

In  the  first  group  of  the  treaty  we  find  a  provision 
that  "  the  Chinese  Government  engages  to  give  full  as- 
sent to  all  matters  upon  which  the  Japanese  Govern- 
ment may  hereafter  agree  with  the  German  Govern- 
ment relating  to  the  disposition  of  all  rights,  interests, 
and  concessions  which  Germany,  by  virtue  of  treaties  or 
otherwise,  possesses  in  relation  to  the  province  of  Shan- 
tung." There  follow  stipulations  that  China  will  ap- 
proach Japanese  capitalists  for  a  loan  "  if  Germany 
abandons  the  privilege  of  financing  the  Chiefou- 
Wehsien  railway  line,"  and  that  China  agrees  to  open 
"  suitable  places  in  the  province  of  Shan-tung  as  com- 
mercial ports." 

On  the  same  day  Japan  agreed  to  restore  to  China 
the  leased  territory  of  Kiao-chau  Bay  in  the  following 
agreement : 

When,  after  the  termination  of  the  present  war,  the  leased  ter- 
ritory of  Kiao-chau  Bay  is  completely  left  to  the  free  disposal 
of  Japan,  the  Japanese  Government  will  restore  the  said  leased 
territory  to  China  under  the  following  conditions: 

1.  The  whole  of  Kiao-chau  Bay  to  be  opened  as  a  commercial 
port. 

2.  A  concession  under  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  Japan  to 
be  established  at  a  place  designated  by  the  Japanese  Government. 

3.  If  the  foreign  powers  desire  it,  an  international  concession 
may  be  established. 

4.  As  regards  the  disposal  to  be  made  of  the  buildings  and 
properties  of  Germany  and  the  conditions  and  procedure  relating 
thereto,  the  Japanese  Government  and  the  Chinese  Government 
shall  arrange  the  matter  by  mutual  agreement  before  the  res- 
toration. 

Finally,  on  September  24,  1918, •  in  an  exchange  of 
notes  between  Baron  Goto,  Japanese  minister  for  for- 
eign affairs,  and  Tsung  Hsiang  Chang,  Chinese  minis- 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  93 

ter  at  Tokio,  the  following  engagements  affecting  Shan- 
tung were  entered  into: 

1.  Japanese  troops  along  the  Kiao-chaii-Tsinan  railway,  except 
a  contingent  of  them  to  be  stationed  at  Toinanfu,  shall  be  with- 
drawn to  Tsing-tau. 

2.  The  Chinese  Government  may  organize  a  police  force  to 
undertake  the  policing  of  the  Kiao-chau-Tsinan  railway. 

3.  The  Kiao-chau-Tsinan  railway  is  to  provide  a  reasonable 
amount  to  defray  the  expense  for  the  maintenance  of  the  above- 
mentioned  police  force. 

4.  Japanese  are  to  be  employed  at  the  headquarters  of  the  above- 
mentioned  police  force,  at  the  principal  railway  stations,  and  at 
the  police  training  school. 

5.  Chinese  citizens  shall  be  employed  by  the  Kiao-chau-Tsinan 
railway  administration  as  part  of  its  staff. 

6.  The  Kiao-chau-Tsinan  railway,  after  its  ownership  is  defi- 
nitely determined,  is  to  be  made  a  Chino-Japanese  joint  enterprise. 

7.  The  civil  administration  established  by  Japan  and  existing 
now  is  to  be  abolished. 

Japan  having  obtained  the  rights  to  the  German  prop- 
erties from  China,  thereupon  asked  her  allies  in  the  war 
—  Great  Britain,  France,  Enssia,  and  Italy  —  to  sus- 
tain her  in  the  possession  of  these  properties  when  the 
subject  came  up  at  the  Peace  Conference.  This  the  four 
allies  agreed  to  do.  The  British  ambassador  at  Tokio 
gave  Japan  the  assurance  that  Great  Britain  would  sup- 
port Japanese  pretensions  to  Shan-tung  and  to  the  Ger- 
man islands  north  of  the  equator,  in  a  note  dated  Feb- 
ruary 16,  1917.  The  French  ambassador  gave  the  same 
assurance  for  his  government  on  March  1,  1917.  Eus- 
sia  replied  favorably  on  March  5,  1917,  and  Italy  gave 
a  verbal  assurance  on  March  23,  1917.  This  action 
was  only  slightly  different  from  that  taken  at  the  close 
of  the  Eusso-Japanese  War.  Eussia,  like  Germany, 
had  leaseholds  in  China  which  Japan  coveted,  this  time 


94  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

in  the  Liao-timg  peninsula.  By  the  Treaty  of  Ports- 
mouth, September  5,  1905,  Eussia  ceded  her  leases  to 
Japan.  China  agreed  to  the  transfer  by  a  treaty 
signed  December  22,  1905,  which  also  gave  other  con- 
cessions. The  Treaty  of  Portsmouth  was  recognized 
by  the  powers.  In  the  matter  of  Shan-tung  Japan 
reversed  the  process,  getting  China's  consent  first,  and 
then  Germany's  consent  by  her  signature  of  the  treaty 
of  peace. 

There  was,  however,  this  fundamental  difference  in 
the  disposal  of  the  leaseholds:  Eussia  negotiated  her 
peace  with  Japan,  but  Germany  did  not  negotiate  her 
peace  with  Japan.  The  terms  regarding  Shan-tung 
were  forced  on  Germany  by  Japan,  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  the  United  States,  sitting  as  a  Peace  Con- 
ference. Italy  was  not  represented  at  this  meeting,  but 
was  fully  in  accord. 

There  was  also  this  difference:  At  Portsmouth 
China  interposed  no  objection  to  the  transfer  of  the 
Liao-tung  lease.  At  Paris  China  definitely  opposed  the 
transfer  of  the  Shan-tung  lease  and  concessions. 

This  subject  was  taken  up  by  the  Council  of  Three, 
Signor  Orlando  being  absent,  on  April  22.  Japan 
demanded  that  the  terms  of  her  agreement  with  China 
he  recognized  by  the  Peace  Conference  as  binding ;  that 
is  to  say,  when  the  question  of  disposing  of  Germany's 
property  in  Shan-tung  came  up,  Japan  presented  a  prior 
claim,  together  with  the  promises  by  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Italy  that  they  would  recognize  this  claim. 

There  was  nothing  unusual  or  new  in  this  action. 
Leaseholds  change  hands  daily  in  business  life,  and  the 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  95 

owner  of  the  property  is  frequently  coerced,  by  sucli 
gentle  threats  as  obtain  even  in  our  business  practices, 
to  give  his  unwilling  consent.     But  — 

The  council  heard  Japan  in  the  morning  and  China 
in  the  afternoon.  China  emphatically  objected  to  the 
transfer.  China  said  consent  had  been  wrung  from 
her  under  duress.  She  asked  that  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence disregard  the  treaty  of  May  8,  1915. 

Mr.  Lloyd  George  and  M.  Clemenceau  declared  they 
meant  to  stand  by  their  promises  to  Japan.  They  had 
deviated  from  these  promises  in  the  case  of  the  Pacific 
islands  north  of  the  equator,  but  were  not  ready  to  do 
so  in  the  case  of  Shan-tung,  for  a  very  good  reason. 
Both  Great  Britain  and  France  were  in  the  same  posi- 
tion as  Japan.  They  had  wrung  great  concessions  out 
of  China.  They  could  not  repudiate  Japan's  lease- 
holds without  repudiating  their  own. 

Japan  knew  this.  Japan  also  knew  that  she  could 
throw  the  whole  Peace  Conference  into  confusion  by 
either  withdrawing  or  refusing  to  join  the  League  of 
Nations.  Japan  was  virtually  gaining  nothing  but 
manacles  for  her  grasping  hands  by  joining  the  league. 
But  the  league  without  Japan  in  it  was  unthinkable. 

This  was  the  situation  that  confronted  Woodrow  Wil- 
son on  April  22,  1919. 

China  took  the  position  that  when  she  declared  war 
with  Germany  she  abrogated  "  all  treaties  of  whatever 
nature  between  China  and  Germany.  On  this  ground 
China  contended  that  the  Shan-tung  leaseholds  reverted 
to  herself.  The  fact  that  China  had  already  agreed 
to  their  transfer  to  Japan  does  not  appear  to  play  any 


96  THE  ADVEl^TUKES  OF 

part  in  the  Chinese  argument.  Yet  China  did  not 
formally  denounce  the  treaty  with  Japan.  She  was 
not  strong  enough  to  denounce  it  because  none  of  the 
Allies  was  ready  to  back  her  up  by  force  if  Japan  used 
force. 

President  Wilson  faced  a  treaty  that  was  valid  in 
international  practice,  as  valid  as  the  Belgian  treaty 
of  neutrality  which  Germany  violated  and  Great  Brit- 
ain defended,  and  Avhich,  by  the  way,  was  originally 
forced  on  Belgium. 

President  Wilson  had  two  courses  open  to  him.  They 
were:  first,  he  could  repudiate  the  China-Japanese 
treaty  of  1915,  and  denounce  Japan's  practice.  By 
doing  so  he  would:  (a)  make  an  enemy  of  Japan;  (b) 
denounce  also  Great  Britain  and  France;  (c)  lose  the 
League  of  Nations,  and  (d)  probably  see  Japan  occupy 
Shan-tung  without  regard  for  treaties  or  leaseholds,  with 
the  consent  of  Great  Britain  and  France.  The  United 
States  could  then  protest,  but  could  save  nothing  for 
China  unless  she  went  to  war  alone. 

Second,  he  could  acquiesce  in  the  transfer  of  the 
leaseholds,  hold  Japan  to  her  promises,  and  eventually, 
through  the  League  of  Xations  so  educate  public  opin- 
ion that  it  would  be  considered  dishonorable  and  im- 
moral for  a  nation  to  hold  leaseholds,  privileges,  and 
concessions  gained  under  duress  and  against  the  will  of 
the  people  concerned.  This  would  (a)  bind  Japan  be- 
fore the  world,  (b)  save  the  face  of  Great  Britain  and 
France,  (c)  save  the  League  of  Nations,  and  (d)  pre- 
vent an  open  rupture  with  Japan. 


THE  FOUETEEN  POIISTTS  97 

President  Wilson,  being  a  man  of  the  highest  type  of 
courage,  chose  the  second  course. 

After  the  Peace  Conference  had  agreed  to  the  trans- 
fer of  the  Shan-tung  leaseholds,  Japan  consented  to  join 
what  is  known  as  the  four-power  consortium  to  furnish 
future  loans  to  China.  This  is  an  agreement  between 
Great  Britain,  France,  the  United  States,  and  Japan 
that  future  loans  to  China  shall  not  be  made  by  any 
one  power,  but  that  all  four  shall  share  in  the  privilege 
of  making  the  loan.  This  is  believed  to  be  the  begin- 
ning of  an  important  change  in  the  administration  of 
Chinese  affairs,  as  it  is  understood  that  Japan  has 
agreed  to  consider  it  binding  on  all  loan  privileges  which 
were  to  come  to  her  in  Shan-tung  as  a  result  of  the 
treaty.  This  method  of  making  loans  to  China  was 
advocated  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
many  months  before  the  consortium  was  agreed  to.  It 
is  a  constructive,  forward-looking  step,  which  will  help 
take  China  out  of  financial  bondage  to  Japan.  The 
consortium  has  been  strongly  opposed  in  Japan,  and 
recently  certain  Japanese  groups  have  declared  them- 
selves for  keeping  Manchuria  and  Mongolia  out  of  the 
zone  of  operation  of  the  consortium. 

I  have  tried  to  present  the  question  of  Shan-tung 
impartially  as  it  came  before  the  Peace  Conference. 
The  whole  subject,  even  in  Paris,  awakened  the  most 
extraordinary  recriminations.  The  campaign  of  pub- 
licity for  the  Chinese  case  was  so  well  handled  that  it 
won  numerous  friends  even  among  the  working  classes 
of  France,  who  heretofore  had  received  little  informa- 


98  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

tion  on  the  subject.  The  government-controlled  press  of 
Paris  had  given  only  meager  space  to  the  Chinese  argu- 
ments and  had  taken  it  for  granted  that  Japan's  de- 
mands would  be  sustained.  In  the  more  liberal  news- 
papers of  England  and  America,  however,  the  cause  of 
China  won  vigorous  adherents.  Japan  was  pictured 
as  a  grasping  power,  gradually  arrogating  to  herself 
great  strips  of  Chinese  territory,  growing  to  dangerous 
proportions  as  the  result  of  a  war  which  enriched  her 
in  land  and  gold,  while  it  left  old  Europe  impoverished. 
Even  among  the  delegations  at  the  conference  there  were 
men  who  became  cool  and  reserved  in  the  presence  of  a 
Japanese  diplomat.  The  fact  that  Japan  had  become 
an  adept  at  the  land-grabbing  methods  which  European 
countries  had  practised  for  centuries  was  resented  most 
by  those  who  unconsciously  had  been  her  tutors. 

Despite  the  storm  of  abuse  in  the  liberal  press  and 
the  wave  of  criticism  that  swept  the  United  States,  the 
commissioners  of  Japan  at  the  Hotel  Bristol  went  about 
their  business  unmoved.  Their  deportment  was  a  model 
of  Old-World  diplomacy.  They  knew  the  value  of 
silence.  On  the  rare  occasions  when  they  spoke  it 
was  in  keeping  with  the  best  traditions  of  diplomacy. 
The  day  after  the  informal  Chinese  tea  at  the  Hotel 
Lutetia, —  the  one  that  I  described  at  the  opening  of 
this  chapter, —  the  Marquis  Saionyi,  chief  of  the  Jap- 
anese delegation  at  the  conference,  felt  impelled  to  give 
his  point  of  view.  I  recall  the  sensation  I  experienced 
when  he  gave  it  —  a  feeling  that  this  man  knew  exactly 
what  he  was  going  to  get  out  of  the  Peace  Conference. 
From  that  moment  I  no  longer  doubted  that  Japan's 


THE  FOUKTEEJSr  POINTS  99 

claims  would  be  fully  sustained,  and  yet  all  lie  said  was 
this: 

Japan  adheres  with  full  sympathy  to  the  great  project  of  es- 
tablishing peace  upon  just,  impartial,  and  solid  foundations.  We 
envisage  this  question  not  so  much  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  entire  world,  as  from  that  of  the  far  East,  where  we  have 
been  obliged  to  assure  the  maintenance  of  peace  by  arms  on 
three  occasions  in  the  last  half-century.  We  are  happy  that 
humanity  is  able  to  perceive  the  first  rays,  rather  feeble  as  yet, 
of  the  new  era  in  which  right  will  definitely  prevail  against  force. 

I  have  the  firm  conviction  that  China  will  understand  our  just 
and  legitimate  aspirations  and  that  she  will  join  completely  with 
Japan  for  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  general  security  and  for 
the  progress  of  civilization  in  the  far  East.  The  foundation  of 
the  League  of  Nations  will  help  essentially  to  dissipate  the  current 
prejudices  of  men  relative  to  their  true  interest. 

When  the  decision  in  the  case  of  Shan-tung  was  made 
public,  the  Council  of  Four  —  or,  rather,  three,  for  it 
was  attended  at  this  time  only  by  M.  Clemenceau,  Mr. 
Lloyd  George,  and  President  Wilson,  in  the  absence  of 
Signor  Orlando  of  Italy  —  was  roundly  excoriated  in 
the  liberal  press,  and  President  Wilson  was  charged 
even  in  his  own  country  with  betraying  the  interests  of 
democracy.  The  Chinese  delegation  published  an  able 
and  well-written  protest  in  which  it  declared  that  the 
council  "  has  been  bestowing  upon  Japan  the  rights  not 
of  Germany,  but  of  China ;  not  of  the  common  enemy, 
but  of  a  weaker  ally."  And  the  delegates  pointed  to 
the  fact  that  Japan's  new  rights  jeopardized  the  safety 
of  Peking,  '^  which  becomes  an  enclave  in  the  midst  of 
Japanese  influence."  The  delegation  again  said  that 
when  China  declared  war  all  German  rights  were  con- 
sidered abrogated  and  that  all  territory  therefore  re- 
verted to  China,  a  claim,  however,  which  was  made  after 


100  THE  FOUKTEEN  POmTS 

the  rights  in  Shan-tung  already  had  been  signed  away. 

In  China  itself  the  news  resulted  in  demonstrations 
against  the  Japanese  and  a  boycott  against  Japanese 
merchants,  which  the  Chinese  Government  would  have 
been  powerless  to  stop  had  it  wished.  Colleges  closed, 
and  street  disturbances  took  place  in  cities  like  Canton 
and  Tsientsin.  An  attempt  was  made  to  instruct  the 
Chinese  delegation  at  Paris  to  sign  the  treaty  of  peace 
with  a  reservation  objecting  to  the  decision  affecting 
China.  It  was  said  that  this  view  was  advocated  by  a 
nimiber  of  the  delegates  from  other  nations,  and  that 
even  two  of  the  three  who  made  the  decision  at  one  time 
thought  this  might  be  a  proper  parliamentary  manoeuver. 
At  the  height  of  the  storm  the  President  of  China,  Hsu 
Shih  Chang,  attempted  to  resign,  and  it  was  reported 
from  the  Orient  that  he  had  refused  longer  to  take 
orders  from  the  military  party,  which  leaned  toward 
the  Japanese  and  was  endeavoring  to  stop  demonstra- 
tions against  the  treaty  of  peace.  The  resignation,  how- 
ever, was  not  accepted,  but  the  Chinese  delegates  in 
Paris  refused  to  sign  the  treaty  of  peace  without  reser- 
vation and  the  Council  would  not  permit  signature  with 
a  reservation. 

That  is  the  story  of  a  picturesque  controversy  at  the 
Peace  Conference,  which  opened  with  a  tea  and,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  tea  thrown  into  Boston  Harbor,  may 
yet  end  with  another  treaty  of  peace. 


CHAPTER  VII 

A  dip  into  President  Wilson's  mail-bag  and  what  I  found  there 
—  Also  throwing  light  on  what  happened  when  the  smaller  nations 
heard  of  self-determination. 

"  Excuse  me/'  said  a  voice  at  my  elbow  one  morning 
just  when  I  had  become  engrossed  in  the  "  Matin's  " 
argument  that  France  could  accept  not  a  cent  less  than 
320,000,000,000  francs  from  Germany  —''  Excuse  me, 
but  have  you  seen  O'Kelly  ?  " 

I  looked  up,  and  beheld  the  glowing,  smiling  face 
of  Van  Steen,  friend  of  oppressed  nationalities,  special 
advocate  for  small  nations.  You  have  heard  of  the 
tracer  of  lost  persons.  Van  Steen  was  a  tracer  of  lost 
causes.  At  least  he  seemed  to  find  it  a  pleasure  to 
plead  for  a  good  many  unpromising  ones.  Unknown  to 
fame  was  his  name,  obscure  even,  although  the  heads  of 
states  and  members  of  delegations  at  the  conference 
read  it  at  the  bottom  of  numerous  letters  that  cluttered 
up  their  mail  —  read  it,  and  straightway  forgot  it. 
Eor  Van  Steen  was  one  of  that  great  body  of  men  who 
hovered  about  the  tag  ends  of  the  conference.  There 
were,  in  fact,  three  distinct  groups :  first,  the  inner  cir- 
cle of  delegates  from  recognized  states;  second,  the 
great  body  of  assistants  and  experts  who  helped  the  con- 
ference machinery  to  revolve;  and  third,  the  fringe  of 
hangers-on.  In  America  the  fringe  would  be  called  the 
lobby.     Van  Steen  belonged  to  the  lobby. 

"  Good  morning,''  he  said,  and  then  repeated  his  in- 
quiry, ''  Have  you  seen  O'Kelly  ?  " 

101 


102  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Of  course  lie  meant  the  redoubtable  emissary  of 
Eamon  de  Valera,  "  president  of  the  republic  of  Ire- 
land," who,  true  to  Gaelic  tradition,  spelled  his  name, 
"  O'Ceallaigh."     1  confessed  that  I  had  not  seen  him. 

'^  O'Ceallaigh  is  in  town,"  said  Van  Steen.  ^'  I  am 
trying  to  find  him.  I  have  a  grievance  to  register. 
Have  you  read  in  the  '  Times  '  how  certain  Irishmen 
are  desecrating  the  memorials  of  Englishmen  who 
fought  in  the  Boer  War  ?  " 

I  had  not  read  the  articles.  Van  Steen  turned  to  a 
large,  bulging  portfolio  that  he  always  carried  —  a  port- 
folio that  had  once  been  black,  but  now  looked  rather 
gray  and  worn  about  the  edges.  He  delved  for  a  mo- 
ment within  its  dark  recesses  and  brought  out  a  book- 
let of  his  own  making,  which  contained  clippings  from 
the  ^'  Times,"  neatly  arranged  in  the  order  of  their 
publication. 

'^  The  Irish  who  are  petitioning  this  conference  for 
recognition  of  their  republic,"  said  Van  Steen,  ^'  have 
been  perpetrating  outrages  on  memorials  to  English- 
men who  fought  in  the  Boer  War.  Xow  I  want  to  ask 
O'Ceallaigh  to  tell  them  to  stop  it.     It 's  wrong." 

"  No  doubt  about  that,"  I  said.  ''  But  to  what  shall 
I  ascribe  this  sympathy  of  yours  for  British  memo- 
rials ?  " 

"  I  am  interested  in  the  cause  of  Boer  independ- 
ence," said  Van  Steen,  with  a  chuckle  that  apparently 
had  nothing  to  do  with  his  statement.  ^'  When  the 
Irish  attack  Boer  War  memorials,  the  British  get  the 
impression  that  the  Boers  and  the  Irish  are  fighting 
together,  and  they  begin  to  see  visions  of  the  disinte- 


THE  F0URTEE:N'  points  103 

gration  of  the  empire.  But  it  is  not  true.  The  Irish 
Sinn  Fein  party  has  declared  for  a  republic.  The  Na- 
tionalist party  of  South  Africa  has  declared  its  read- 
iness to  appoint  delegates  to  visit  England  and  confer 
with  the  king  on  the  subject  of  independence." 

"  Then  there  is  actually  a  movement  for  independ- 
ence in  South  Africa  ?  " 

"  Most  assuredly,  yes/'  replied  Van  Steen.  "  In 
fact,  it  is  my  hope  that  the  people  of  the  South  African 
Republic  and  the  Orange  Free  State,  who  lost  their 
independence  in  a  war  that  the  world  condemned,  but 
did  nothing  to  stop,  in  time  may  come  back  into  their 
own  by  grace  of  President  Wilson's  statement  to  Con- 
gress on  January  18,  1918,  on  ^  the  principle  of  justice 
to  all  peoples  and  nationalities  and  their  right  to  live 
on  equal  terms  of  liberty  and  safety  with  one  another, 
whether  they  be  strong  or  weak.'  " 

His  remark  sent  my  memory  back  a  score  of  years. 
South  Africa  !  The  Boer  War !  Lord  Roberts,  Kitch- 
ener, Kruger,  Botha,  Smuts,  Dewet,  Milner!  The 
Jamieson  Raid !  The  Siege  of  Ladysmith !  Boer 
parades  in  the  United  States,  Boer  funds  and  public 
meetings,  Boer  petitions  to  Congress!  The  stirring 
animosities  of  those  times  had  passed  quickly  from 
among  us,  and  we  now  counted  the  Boers  as  a  happy 
and  contented  lot.  To-day  our  minds  were  occupied 
with  the  Balkans,  with  Germany,  with  the  Letts,  the 
Finns,  the  Czechs,  the  Poles,  and  we  had  no  time  to 
give  to  people  whom  we  thought  had  been  assimilated 
years  ago.  Were  not  the  Boers  happy  and  prosperous 
under  a  British  administration?     Did  they  not  have 


104  THE  ADVENTURES  OE 

a  large  measure  of  self-government  in  their  Parlia- 
ment of  the  Union?  Did  not  Botha  and  Smuts  come 
voluntarily  to  give  their  genius  to  Great  Britain,  the 
latter  even  standing  sponsor  for  a  plan  for  a  league 
of  nations  which  surely  radiated  confidence  in  the  aims 
and  abilities  of  the  British  world  empire?  Why 
should  South  Africa  come  up  again  now  as  a  subject  of 
discussion,  perhaps  controversy  ? 

Was  it  possible  that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  a 
true  conquest  by  the  sword  ? 

These  thoughts  flitted  quickly  through  my  mind  while 
Van  Steen  continued  to  describe  the  Boer  movement. 
I  remembered  that  he  had  told  me  he  was  of  Dutch 
descent,  and  that  over  a  score  of  years  ago  he  had 
been  associated  with  a  legation  in  Paris  that  no  longer 
existed. 

"  The  South  African  nationalists,"  he  said,  '^  de- 
clared that  they  would  send  deputations  to  England  to 
confer  with  the  king  on  the  subject  of  independence. 
They  received  a  reply  from  Lord  Buxton,  the  governor- 
general,  who  said  that  the  secretary  of  state  for  the 
colonies  informed  him  that  his  Majesty's  government 
regarded  the  South  African  constitution,  the  govern- 
ment, and  the  parliament  of  the  Union  as  alone  quali- 
fied to  speak  for  the  people  of  South  Africa.  There- 
upon delegates  were  named  to  go  to  Paris  and  lay  the 
situation  before  the  Peace  Conference.  The  British  au- 
thorities made  an  objection  to  one  or  two  of  the  dele- 
gates, but  on  the  whole  did  not  oppose  the  idea.  Gen- 
eral Christian  Dewet  and  Pieter  Grobler  were,  I  be- 
lieve, stopped  from  sailing;  but  General  Ilertzog,  Sen- 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  105 

ator  Wolmarans  and  Dr.  Malan  were  given  credentials." 

^^  Then  the  British  were  really  willing  to  let  men 
who  actually  aimed  at  secession  spread  their  views  at 
large  ?  "  I  interrupted. 

"  Yes,  they  were/'  replied  Van  Steen,  with  a  chuckle 
that  was  characteristic  of  him.  "  The  British  have  al- 
ways believed  that  it 's  a  good  idea  to  let  men  with  a 
grievance  blow  off  steam.  However,  before  these  men 
sailed,  a  number  of  things  happened.  When  they 
boarded  a  British  vessel  at  Cape  Town  the  crew  struck, 
declaring  they  would  not  sail  with  traitors.  So  they 
were  compelled  to  take  a  Dutch  ship  for  New  York. 
Erom  New  York  they  will  sail  eventually  for  France. 
Some  time  this  summer  they  should  arrive  here.'' 

"  And  then  ?  "  I  said. 

"  Then  they  will  place  before  the  Peace  Conference 
the  aspirations  and  hopes  of  the  people  of  South  Africa 
and  ask  for  aid,"  said  Van  Steen.  ^'  They  count  first 
of  all  upon  the  sympathy  and  unofficial  help  of  Presi- 
dent Wilson." 

President  Wilson !  What  a  beacon  light  of  hope 
that  name  had  become  to  all  the  aspiring,  discon- 
tented, aggrieved,  oppressed,  and  inarticulate  peoples 
of  this  earth! 

"  Listen,"  continued  Van  Steen.  '^  I  have  prepared 
a  letter  to  the  President  on  the  subject.  I  want  you 
to  read  it  and  tell  me  whether  it  is  the  proper  thing  to 
send.  My  experience,  as  you  know,  has  been  entirely 
with  European  cabinets."  He  chuckled  again ;  in  fact, 
he  laughed  to  himself,  as  if  at  a  humorous  reminiscence. 
''  If  the  head  of  a  European  cabinet  gets  a  letter  that 


106  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

does  n't  quite  agree  with  his  ideas  of  what  should  be 
on  this  earth,  he  throws  it  into  the  waste-basket.  I 
am  informed  that  letters  addressed  to  your  American 
representatives,  however,  are  always  read  and  gener- 
ally acknowledged." 

Van  Steen  handed  me  his  letter  to  the  President. 
It  was  simple  and  to  the  point.  President  Wilson  may 
remember  it;  at  least  he  will  find  it  in  his  files.  It 
asked  the  Peace  Conference  to  take  up  for  consideration 
the  subject  of  recognition  of  the  annexation  of  the  Or- 
ange Free  Sta«te  and  the  South  African  Eepublic  to  the 
South  African  states  of  the  British  Empire.  While 
I  read,  Van  Steen  watched  me  with  that  curious  expres- 
sion of  suppressed  mirth  that  was  characteristic  of 
him. 

^'  That  is  going  back  a  long  way  in  history,"  I  com- 
mented. 

"  It  concerns  a  very  fine  point  in  diplomacy,"  said 
Van  Steen.  "  In  the  case  of  both  the  Orange  Free 
State  and  the  South  African  Republic,  at  one  time 
called  the  Transvaal,  the  act  of  annexation  of  1900  was 
never  formally  reported  to  the  foreign  cabinets,  so  that 
there  is  no  official  recognition  by  the  other  nations  on 
record.  Technically,  therefore,  these  two  states  may 
be  said  to  exist,  and  therefore  entitled  to  be  consid- 
ered for  membership  in  the  League  of  Nations.  Do 
you  think  that  will  interest  your  President  ?  " 

^^  I  think  that  our  President  came  here  to  make 
peace  with  Germany,"  I  replied,  "  and  it  does  not 
seem  fair  to  ask  him  to  sit  in  judgment  over  all  the 
lost  causes  of  the  earth." 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  107 

"  Your  President  has  spoken  with  conviction  of  jus- 
tice to  the  small  and  oppressed,"  said  Van  Steen,  ''  and 
on  that  ground  I  mean  to  appeal  to  him  for  other  na- 
tionalities as  well."  He  tapped  his  bulging  portfolio 
as  he  spoke. 

I  had  on  my  desk  a  great  collection  of  letters,  cir- 
culars, and  printed  matter  that  had  come  in  the  week's 
mail.  Every  morning  saw  the  pile  increase;  every 
evening  there  were  more  books,  maps,  pamphlets,  and 
personal  pleas  than  there  had  been  the  night  before. 
There  could  be  no  unemployment  among  the  printers 
of  Paris.  The  presses  must  be  running  day  and  night 
in  every  attic  and  basement  in  Paris,  grinding  out 
tons  of  appeals  and  propaganda  for  consideration  by 
the  delegates  at  the  conference.  As  for  the  letters  to 
the  President,  copies  were  freely  made  and  sent  to 
the  journalists.  I  picked  up  half  a  dozen  letters  at 
random  and  showed  them  to  Van  Steen. 

"  Here  are  more  letters  from  the  President's  mail- 
bag,"  I  said.     "  Let  us  see  what  they  are  about." 

Together  we  perused  the  first  letter.  It  was  signed 
by  E.  A.  Omar,  president  of  the  Egyptian  association 
in  Great  Britain,  and  had  been  sent  from  the  Imperial 
hotel,  London,  April  26,  1919.     It  read: 

The  Egyptian  Association  in  Great  Britain  beg  to  record  its 
strong  protestation  against  the  recognition  by  the  republic  of  the 
United  States  of  the  illegal  protectorate  imposed  by  Great  Britain 
on  the  undefended  and  unarmed  nation  of  Egypt  during  the  course 
of  this  war.  They  beg  to  remind  the  president  that  his  act  is  a 
complete  violation  of  his  well  known  principles  of  justice  and  fair 
play  to  the  weak  as  M^ell  as  to  the  strong  nations.  They  beg  fur- 
ther to  record  that  the  president  should,  before  giving  a  decision 
destructive  to  the  legitimate  claims  of  a  small  nation,  have  at 


108  THE  ADVE:tTTURES  OF 

least  allowed  the  Egj'ptian  side  to  be  heard.  They  further  most 
sincerely  and  humbly  desire  to  impress  the  fact  that  the  Egj'ptians, 
having  been  denied  the  elementary  principles  of  justice  which  re- 
quires a  hearing  of  an  aggrie%'ed  party  before  a  decision  is  given 
against  it,  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  whatever  developments 
might  further  occur.  The  Egj'ptians  cannot  still  believe  that  the 
president  has  given  a  final  decision  to  the  effect  that  the  case  of 
Egypt  would  not  be  heard  in  an  open  and  just  tribunal,  and  that 
the  mandataries  which  the  whole  country  have  unanimously  elected 
should  return  home  unheard  and  full  of  agony  and  disappoint- 
ment. 

Van  Steen  read  it  without  comment.  I  picked  up 
another  letter.  It  was  in  French  and  signed  Sean  T. 
O'Ceallaigh,  depute  de  la  conscription  du  college  green, 
Dublin,  representant  a  Paris  du  gouvernement  pro- 
visoire  de  la  repuhlique  Irlandaise.  It  was  accom- 
panied by  a  memorandum  in  English  which  began: 
^'  On  behalf  of  the  Irish  nation,  whose  accredited  rep- 
resentative I  am — " 

"  Xot  entitled,  however,  to  sit  at  the  peace  table," 
commented  Van  Steen.     I  read  from  the  memorandum : 

At  the  general  election  last  December  the  issue,  and  the  only 
issue,  placed  before  the  Irish  peoples  was  the  independence  of  their 
country,  and  by  a  majority  of  more  than  three  to  one  the  rep- 
resentatives elected  by  the  constitutional  machinery  of  the  ballot 
box  are  pledged  to  the  abolition  of  English  rule  in  Ireland.  In 
none  of  the  small  nationalities  with  which  the  Peace  Conference 
has  hitherto  occupied  itself  is  the  unanimity  of  the  people  so 
great;  in  none  has  the  national  desire  for  freedom  been  asserted 
so  unmistakably  and  with  so  much  emphasis.  Following  upon  the 
general  election  an  Irish  national  assembly  has  met;  an  Irish  re- 
public has  been  constituted  and  proclaimed  to  the  world;  a  presi- 
dent has  been  appointed  and  with  him  ministers  to  direct  different 
departments  of  state;  a  program  of  domestic  policy  has  been 
issued,  and  an  appeal  has  been  addressed  to  the  nations  of  the 
world  to  recognize  the  free  Irish  state  that  has  thus  been  called 
to  life.  But  while  the  national  will  has  been  declared  and  the 
mechanism  of  free  government  is  ready,  the  former  is  being  stifled 


THE  rOUKTEEN  POINTS  109 

and  the  latter  paralyzed  by  England's  ruthless  exercise  of  military 
power.  The  president  is  a  fugitive;  the  Irish  parliament  is 
forced  to  conduct  its  business  in  secret;  the  most  elementary  civil 
rights  are  abrogated;  courts-martial  are  sitting  at  every  center 
and  the  gaols  are  filled  with  prisoners,  victims  of  every  brutality 
and  indignity,  whose  only  offense  is  that  they  have  sought  the 
freedom  of  their  native  land.  It  is  in  these  circumstances  that 
the  Irish  nation,  through  me,  addresses  the  peace  conference. 

Mr.  O'Ceallaigh  asked  the  conference  to  take  up  the 
case  of  Ireland  because  that  nation  "  manifestly  comes 
within  the  scope  of  the  principles  that  have  been  in- 
dorsed by  the  civilized  nations/'  and  protested  ex- 
plicitly against  the  adoption  of  Article  X  of  the 
covenant  of  the  League  of  i^ations,  by  the  terms  of  which 
members  undertake  "  to  preserve  and  respect  as  against 
external  aggression  the  territorial  integrity  and  exist- 
ing political  independence  of  all  states  members  of  the 
league."  Mr.  O'Ceallaigh  did  not  wish  the  nations  to 
guarantee  Great  Britain  in  the  possession  of  Ireland. 

The  case  of  Ireland  has  become  so  important  a  fac- 
tor in  American  politics  and  in  Anglo-American  rela- 
tions that  the  story  of  what  actually  took  place  at  the 
time  of  the  Peace  Conference  may  be  recounted  here. 
When  the  Sinn  Fein  leaders  first  announced  that  they 
would  ask  the  Peace  Conference  for  a  hearing  of  their 
claims  for  independence,  a  titter  of  amusement  might 
have  been  heard  in  more  than  one  of  the  delegations 
in  Paris.  Ireland  was  purely  a  British  matter,  they 
argued,  and  no  one  would  be  so  foolhardy  as  to  antag- 
onize the  British  Government  by  even  suggesting  that 
this  was  fit  for  international  attention.  The  British 
themselves  discounted  the  strength  of  the  Sinn  Fein 
party,  and  gave  little  heed  to  the  results  of  the  elec- 


110  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

tion,  which  showed  that  this  party  had  made  a  tre- 
mendous gain  in  adherents  over  the  nationalists.  Then 
twenty-five  members  of  the  Sinn  Fein  who  had  been 
elected  to  seats  in  the  British  House  of  Commons  met 
on  January  21,  1919,  in  Dublin  and  formed  the  ''  Dail 
Eireann,"  or  Irish  Parliament.  A  goodly  number  of 
them  wandered  into  jail  as  a  result  of  their  political 
activities,  including  Eamon  de  Valera,  "  president  of 
the  republic."  Three  men  were  appointed  to  go  to 
Paris  to  present  the  Irish  case,  Count  Plunkett,  Arthur 
Griffith,  and  de  Valera.  On  February  3,  de  Valera 
made  his  spectacular  escape  from  the  Lincoln  jail  under 
circumstances  that  caused  a  good  deal  of  amusement 
at  the  apparent  stupidity  of  his  jailers.  The  immi- 
nence of  his  appearance  in  Paris  was  foreshadowed,  and 
O'Ceallaigh  attempted  to  pave  the  way  for  his  recep- 
tion at  the  conference.  But  the  British  would  have 
none  of  it. 

At  this  juncture  American  intervention  made  an  in- 
ternational matter  of  the  Irish  question.  A  conven- 
tion of  Irish  societies  of  the  United  States  appointed 
three  delegates  to  visit  Paris  and  try  to  get  aid  for  the 
cause  of  Irish  independence  —  Edward  F.  Dunne  of 
Chicago,  former  governor  of  Illinois ;  Michael  J.  Ryan 
of  Philadelphia,  former  public  service  commissioner  of 
Pennsylvania ;  and  Frank  P.  Walsh,  at  one  time  joint 
chairman  of  the  War  Labor  Board.  Besides,  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  get  a  promise  from  President  Wil- 
son. A  group  of  representatives  of  the  Irish  societies 
called  on  him  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  in  New 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POmTS  111 

York  city  on  March  4.  They  reported  that  they  asked 
the  President  the  following  question: 

"  Are  you  prepared  to  advocate  before  the  Peace  Con- 
ference the  right  of  Ireland  to  dispose  of  herself  ac- 
cording to  the  principles  laid  down  in  your  fourteen 
points  ? '' 

President  Wilson  is  said  to  have  replied : 

"  Surely  you  do  not  think  that  I  can  answer  this 
now  ? " 

The  delegates  then  told  him  that  they  would  get  his 
answer  in  Paris.  Then  the  American  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives by  a  vote  of  216  to  41  passed  a  resolution 
asking  the  American  mission  in  Paris  to  consider  fav- 
orably the  Irish  claims  to  the  right  of  self-determination 
—  a  resolution  typical  of  the  influence  foreign  ele- 
ments in  American  politics  frequently  exert  on  a  body 
that  depends  upon  the  popular  vote  for  its  existence. 
When  Messrs.  Dunne,  Ryan,  and  Walsh  reached  Paris 
they  called  immediately  on  President  Wilson  and  Colo- 
nel House.  The  British  authorities  gave  them  the 
right  to  visit  Ireland,  and  their  visit  became  the  oc- 
casion for  Sinn  Fein  demonstrations  that  caused  alarm 
in  British  circles.  When  they  returned  to  France,  Sec- 
retary Lansing  informed  them  that  their  utterances  in 
Ireland  "  gave  deepest  offense  to  those  persons  with 
whom  we  are  seeking  to  deal.  Consequently  it  has 
seemed  useless  to  make  any  further  effort  in  connection 
with  the  requests  which  you  desire  to  make." 

This  letter  brought  a  hot  rejoinder  from  Walsh,  who 
declared  that  the  partj  had  conducted  itself  properly 


112  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

in  Ireland  and  had  violated  no  promises.  An  attempt 
was  made  to  win  the  consent  of  men  from  the  British 
dominions  to  a  hearing  of  the  Irish  case  before  the 
Peace  Conference,  and  Prime  Minister  Massey  of  New 
Zealand  and  Prime  Minister  Hughes  of  Australia  were 
said  to  have  viewed  the  matter  favorably,  but  Borden  of 
Canada  was  reported  opposed  to  the  project.  On  June 
11  President  Wilson  had  a  conference  with  Walsh  and 
Dunne,  and  was  said  to  have  agreed  to  do  what  he  could 
unofficially.  It  appeared  unlikely,  however,  that  the 
conference  would  act  officially,  for  the  reason  that  the 
so-called  Irish  republic  was  not  actually  performing 
the  functions  of  a  de  facto  government  in  Ireland. 

The  three  Americans  inflamed  public  feeling  still 
further  when  they  published  a  report  of  cruelties  and 
hardships  said  to  have  been  inflicted  on  Irish  political 
prisoners  in  British  jails,  and  the  whole  subject  assumed 
international  proportions  because  the  sympathetic  at' 
titude  of  Americans  of  Irish  birth  or  descent  in  the 
United  States  affected  the  good  relations  existing  be- 
tween England  and  America.  The  success  of  the 
League  of  Nations  seemed  threatened  because  the  oppon- 
ents of  the  league  joined  hands  with  the  Irish  in  de- 
nouncing Great  Britain,  asserting  that  the  league  was 
merely  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  British  to  dom- 
inate the  world  order  through  the  United  States. 
Groups  that  had  been  covertly  pro-German  during  the 
war  also  joined  in  the  agitation  because  it  embarrassed 
Great  Britain.  It  became  increasingly  clear  that  no 
matter  whether  the  Sinn  Feiners  were  justified  or  not  in 
their  demands  for  independence,  the  time  had  come 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  113 

for  the  British  to  set  resolutely  to  work  to  give  Ireland 
political  tranquillity,  freedom  from  exploitation,  and  a 
measure  of  self-government,  thereby  eliminating  a  dan- 
gerous element  not  only  from  British  politics,  but  from 
American  affairs  as  well. 

"  It  looks  as  if  there  is  a  lot  of  work  ahead  for  the 
British  Empire,"  I  told  Van  Steen  when  we  were  con- 
sidering the  case  of  Ireland.  '^  I  should  n't  wonder  if 
several  years  will  elapse  before  they  get  around  to  your 
nationalists  in  South  Africa." 

"  I  hope  for  the  best  consideration  for  my  cause," 
said  Van  Steen,  "  but  there  must  be  a  good  many  other 
nations  appealing  to  President  Wilson  besides  the  three 
we  have  considered." 

I  looked  over  the  letters  again.  Here  was  the  dupli- 
cate of  another  addressed  to  the  President.  It  was 
from  "  La  Mission  Correene,  38  Eue  de  Chateaudun, 
Paris,"  and  began: 

"  Dear  Mr.  President :  I  have  the  honor  to  submit 
for  your  perusal  a  copy  of  the  claim  of  the  Korean  peo- 
ple and  nation  for  liberation  from  Japan,  which  my 
delegation  has  filed  with  the  Peace  Conference."  The 
letter  was  signed  by  J.  Kiusic  Soho  Kimm  as  repre- 
sentative of  the  provisional  government  of  Korea. 

^^  On  what  ground  does  he  base  his  claim  for  rec- 
ognition ?  "  asked  Van  Steen. 

'^  On  the  ground  that  one  man,  the  Emperor  of 
Korea,  under  the  coercion  of  Japan,  signed  away  the 
independence  of  his  nation  by  the  treaty  of  August  22, 
1910,  after  Japan  had  recognized  the  full  and  complete 
independence  and  autonomy  of  Korea  in  the  treaty  of 


114  THE  ADVEI^TURES  OF 

Shimonoseki  with  China  on  April  17,  1895.  He  asks 
that  this  act  be  annulled." 

"  I  suppose  he  cites  reasons  why  the  delegation  seeks 
this  annulment,"  said  Van  Steen. 

^'  Yes."  I  read  the  headings  quickly.  '^  Japaniza- 
tion  and  Prussianization."  ^^  Expropriation  of  Korean 
Landowners."  ''  Banning  the  Korean  Language  and 
History."  "  Controlling  Korean  Education."  The 
argument  had  been  w^ell  presented.  I  picked  the  fol- 
lowing sentences  at  random : 

Imprisonment,  banishment  or  worse  might  be  the  penalty  if 
some  Korean  should  be  tempted  to  recite  to  the  children  of  the 
soil  a  traditional  story  or  song  or  some  folk  lore  telling  how  men 
fought  and  died  for  Korea  in  other  days. 

Korean  history  cannot  be  taught  and  after  the  student  has 
advanced  a  little  way  he  must  stop  school  altogether. 

Nearly  every  wealthy  Korean  is  obliged  to  have  a  Japanese 
overseer  at  his  house  controlling  his  properties  and  finances. 

And  it  is  not  a  little  interesting  to  note  that  an  American  in- 
vestigator in  the  course  of  his  inquiries  on  the  state  of  Korea  un- 
der the  Japanese  found  that  no  family  in  some  places  was  per- 
mitted to  own  the  Korean  kitchen  knife,  which  has  been  in  com- 
mon use  from  time  immemorial.  One  such  knife  had  to  be  shared 
by  five  or  six  families,  and  when  not  in  use  had  to  be  hung  at  a 
spot  in  full  view  of  the  beat  of  a  Japanese  gendarme. 

Finally  this  line  struck  my  attention:  ''  The  policy 
of  the  prize  pig."     The  paragraph  below  it  read : 

The  ''improvements"  loudly  advertised  in  the  annual  reports 
of  the  Korean  government  general  are  made  either  for  the  en- 
couragement of  the  Japanese  settlers  or  in  the  interests  of  what 
may  be  truly  described  as  the  policy  of  the  prize  pig — for  much 
the  same  reason  that  a  breeder  fattens  his  pig  for  a  show. 

"  The  man  who  prepared  the  Korean  memorandum 
to  President  Wilson,"  I  said,  "  knew  a  great  deal  about 
the  methods  of  American  publicity.     Shall  I  go  on  ?  " 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  115 

"  I  don't  think  it  necessary,"  said  Van  Steen. 
"  When  I  consider  that  all  these  people  are  appealing 
to  President  Wilson,  I  wonder  when  he  will  get  around 
to  my  poor  Boers." 

"  And  these  are  not  all,"  I  said.  ^'  His  mail-bag  is 
jammed  full  to  the  very  top  every  day.  I  '11  wager 
that  there  are  a  dozen  more  appeals  in  this  pile  of  let- 
ters alone." 

For  curiosity's  sake,  we  ran  through  them.  Van 
Steen  took  a  pencil  and  set  down  the  name  of  the  na- 
tionality, and  opposite  it  something  about  its  wishes. 
The  list  looked  like  this : 

Albania  —  Nationalist  group  seeks  autonomy  and  eventual  in- 
dependence, the  country  to  be  placed  temporarily  under  the 
guardianship  of  one  of  the  powers.  "  The  Stars  and  Stripes  have 
appeared  in  Albania.  A  new  era  of  approaching  peace  and  hap- 
piness is  dawning  on  the  clouded  and  blood-stained  horizon  of  the 
Balkans.  The  torch  of  the  American  goddess  of  Liberty  has  been 
lifted,  and  we  hope  it  will  not  be  lowered  until  each  and  all  Balkan 
races  are  redeemed  and  restored  within  their  racial  lines  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  dictates  of  the  impartial  justice  advocated  by 
President  Wilson." 

Armenia  —  The  delegation  from  the  Armenian  republic,  headed 
by  A.  Aharonian,  its  president,  asks  recognition  of  an  independ- 
ent Armenian  state  formed  by  the  union  of  the  seven  vilayets  and 
of  Cilicia  with  the  territories  of  the  Armenian  republic  of  the 
Caucasus,  under  the  special  guarantee  of  the  Allies  and  the  United 
States  or  under  the  League  of  Nations,  with  a  special  mandate  for 
twenty  years  to  one  of  the  great  powers. 

Croatia  —  Dr.  Raditch  signs  a  protest  against  the  usurpation 
of  sovereign  powers  by  the  Serbian  Government  over  the  autono- 
mous nation  of  Croatia,  and  asks  the  conference  to  guarantee  self- 
government  to  the  Croats  and  organize  the  greater  Serbian  state 
along  the  lines  of  a  federative  republic  like  the  LTnited  States. 

Esthonia  —  A  delegation  seeks  recognition  of  the  independence 
of  Esthonia,  the  plea  having  been  put  personally  to  President 
Wilson  during  his  visit  to  London,  and  being  repeated  now  before 
the  conference. 


116  THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS 

Finland  —  Dr.  Adolf  Torngren  and  Dr.  Y.  Hirn,  delegates  to 
the  Peace  Conference  named  by  General  Maniierheim,  ask  recogni- 
tion of  the  independence  of  Finland  and  a  guarantee  of  its  in- 
tegrity. 

Georgia  —  The  delegates  Cheidze  and  Tsertelli  present  their 
claims  for  the  recognition  of  the  independence  of  the  republic  of 
Georgia,  in  southern  Russia,  and  assert  that  it  was  never  con- 
quered, but  voluntarily  entered  into  a  union  with  the  czars  and  now 
takes  back  its  ancient  rights. 

Kouban  —  M.  Bytch,  president  of  the  legislative  assembly  of 
Kouban  and  head  of  the  delegation  in  Paris,  asks  recognition  of 
the  independence  of  Kouban,  in  Russia,  and  help  in  a  defensive 
fight  against  the  Bolsheviki. 

Kutso  Vlachs — Rumanian  elements  in  Albania  seek  autonomy 
under  the  protection  of  one  of  the  great  powers,  preferably  Italy. 

Lebanon  —  Nahoum  A.  Mokarzel,  delegate  of  the  Lebanese 
League  at  the  Hotel  Continental,  seeks  the  reconstitution  of  Leb- 
anon in  its  historic  and  natural  frontiers,  with  a  constitutional 
and  independent  government  with  French  collaboration. 

Lusatia  —  Serbs  living  in  this  ancient  margravinate,  which  was 
divided  between  Saxony  and  Austria  by  the  Congress  of  Vienna, 
ask  independence  and  close  relations  with  the  Czecho-Slovaks. 

Persia  —  M.  Mochaverol  Mamalek,  minister  of  foreign  affairs  for 
Persia,  and  the  Persian  mission  in  Paris,  ask  the  Peace  Conference 
to  give  back  its  old  frontiers,  and  its  political  and  economic  in- 
dependence, as  well  as  restoration  of  the  integrity  of  the  country 
by  the  evacuation  of  all  foreign  troops  and  reparation  for  the 
enormous  damage  committed  by  the  armies  that  used  Persian  terri- 
tory during  the  war.  Persia  submits  that  it  has  been  a  theater 
of  war  and  that,  through  distinct  declaration,  it  "joined  the 
protests  made  by  the  entente  against  the  violation  of  international 
law  committed  by  Germany,  especially  against  the  submarine 
warfare." 

Ukraine  —  M.  Sydorenko,  president  of  the  delegation  from  the 
republic  of  Ukraine  and  Dr.  Paneyko,  vice-president,  seek  recog- 
nition of  the  independence  of  this  republic,  which  they  assert  is 
fighting  the  Bolshevism  of  Lenin,  the  reaction  of  Denikine,  and 
the  alleged  aggression  of  the  Poles  in  their  territory. 

"  And  there   are  people   in   this   world,"   said   Van 
Steen,  when  we  had  completed  the  list,   "  who  think  - 
this  Peace  Conference  should  have  finished  its  work  in 
six  weeks  at  the  most !  " 


CHAPTER  YIII 

How  the  Prince  of  the  Hedjaz  pitched  his  Arabian  tent  in  the 
apartments  of  a  Parisian  hotel,  and  how  he  disconcerted  the 
plans  for  a  Jewish  Palestine  and  a  French  Syria  by  his  modest 
request  for  the  empire  of  the  califate. 

Feom  Mecca,  the  city  of  the  Kaaba,  from  the  holy 
sites  of  western  Arabia,  which  the  world  of  Islam  ap- 
proaches only  on  its  knees,  came  the  Emir  Feisal  to 
plead  the  cause  of  Hussein,  King  of  the  Hedjaz,  before 
the  four  most  powerful  Christian  judges  of  the  earth. 

The  flavor  of  the  eternal  romance  of  the  East  is  in 
this  story  of  the  rise  of  Hussein,  custodian  of  the  holy 
temple  of  the  prophet  in  Mecca.  And  bound  up  with 
this  mission  of  the  Emir  Eeisal  is  the  intrigue  and 
calculated  cunning  of  the  diplomacy  of  the  Western 
World.  The  war  has  obscured  the  romantic  battle 
waged  in  the  midst  of  the  Arabian  desert  by  the  horse- 
men of  the  King  of  the  Hedjaz,  but  in  the  story  of  the 
Peace  Conference  the  mission  of  the  Emir  Feisal  stands 
out  like  a  patch  of  dazzling  color  against  a  drab  back- 
ground. 

Only  a  few  years  before  the  war  Hedjaz  was  a  vilayet 
in  western  Arabia,  known  principally  for  its  numerous 
holy  places  of  Islam,  inhabited  by  Arab  traders  and 
groups  of  wandering  Bedouin  tribes,  with  a  population 
at  the  most  of  little  more  than  half  a  million.  To-day 
Hedjaz  is  spoken  of  as  an  independent  kingdom,  aspir- 

117 


118  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

ing  to  the  hegemony  of  all  the  Arabian-speaking  world, 
seeking  trade  routes  that  for  decades  had  been  the  ob- 
ject of  German  intrigues  in  Constantinople,  asking  title 
to  seaports  with  famous  names  and  inland  cities  of  the 
ancient  califate  of  Bagdad,  and  offering  to  be  the  spokes- 
man internationally  for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men 
of  alien  race  and  tongue.  Neither  the  conservative,  lib- 
eral, nor  extremist  elements  of  the  ancient  Empire  of 
Eussia,  a  world  of  nearly  two  hundred  million  people, 
had  been  able  to  force  a  way  to  the  peace  table.  Mon- 
tenegro, a  recognized  nation  and  one  of  the  first  victims 
of  the  Austro-German  avalanche,  knocked  in  vain  at  the 
doors  on  the  Quai  d'Orsay.  But  the  mission  from 
Hedjaz,  coming  to  Paris  in  flowing  robes  and  turbans, 
obtained  two  delegates  to  the  Peace  Conference  for  little 
more  than  a  song. 

To  hear  why,  and  to  learn  the  stoiy  of  the  new  Ara- 
bia, I,  too,  one  day  joined  the  pilgrimage  to  Hedjaz. 

One  might  well  expect  to  visit  the  son  of  the  sherif 
of  Mecca  in  a  tent  glowing  with  brilliant  colors,  on 
the  fringe  of  the  Arabian  desert,  there  to  find  him 
munching  figs  and  dates  and  surrounded  by  Arabs  in 
flowing  robes  of  wool.  It  seemed  incongruous  that  my 
path  should  lead  to  the  velvet-carpeted  corridors  of  the 
Hotel  Continental,  on  the  Rue  de  Rivoli,  and  that  I 
should  be  ushered  into  a  suite  of  rooms  immaculate  in 
white  enamel,  resplendent  with  red  damask  hangings 
and  generouely  endowed  with  heavy  crystal  chandeliers. 
But  there  was  an  Oriental  touch  that  compensated  for 
the  lack  of  Eastern  surroundings.  In  the  corridor  be- 
fore the  door  of  the  emir  stood  a  coal-black  negro,  tur- 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  119 

baned  and  robed,  bis  features  immobile,  but  bis  eyes 
flashing.  Inside  tbe  rooms  were  other  turbaned  ne- 
groes, picked  men  of  tbe  prince's  body-guard,  who 
spoke  in  low,  guttural  tones  as  they  bowed  and  per- 
formed the  slight  offices  of  hospitality  for  a  stranger. 

The  Arabs  of  the  prince's  entourage  wore  European 
attire,  but  the  moment  they  donned  their  long  robes  of 
black  wool  and  added  the  picturesque  turban,  which 
was  held  by  a  number  of  gold  cords  about  the  brow,  they 
seemed  to  transfer  themselves  across  the  seas  into  the 
atmosphere  of  the  land  from  which  they  had  come. 
And  finally  when  the  emir  entered  the  room,  also  wear- 
ing a  long,  trailing  black  robe  and  a  gold-colored  head- 
dress, the  Parisian  surroundings  were  forgotten,  and  I 
was  in  a  land  that  has  been  a  secret  orchard  from  the 
days  of  the  Israelites  to  our  own. 

It  was  true ;  the  emissaries  of  Hedjaz  had  come  out  of 
the  desert  to  Paris  to  ask  for  an  empire. 

The  emir  is  a  quiet,  soft-spoken  man  of  about  thirty- 
five.  He  has  the  look  of  a  scholar,  the  modest  demeanor 
of  a  man  of  refinement  and  cultivated  tastes.  For  six- 
teen years  he  lived  in  Constantinople,  a  hostage  at  the 
Ottoman  court  for  the  good  behaviour  and  loyalty  of  the 
ruling  house  of  Hedjaz.  It  is  said  that  he  best  loves 
classical  and  philosophical  studies.  It  was  almost  with 
an  air  of  apology  that  he  sketched  the  claims  of  Hedjaz 
on  a  map  of  Asia  Minor.  The  greater  part  of  the  map, 
including  Arabia,  Mesopotamia,  Palestine,  and  most  of 
Syria,  had  been  shaded  with  a  lead-pencil. 

"  This  is  the  Arabia  for  which  we  are  asking  the 
Peace  Conference/'  said  the  prince.     He  pointed  on 


120  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

the  map  to  a  point  as  far  north  as  Alexandretta,  on  the 
coast,  and  then  indicated  all  the  territory  south  of  a  line 
drawn  eastward  to  Diabekr,  the  Tigris  River,  Tekrif 
and  Madekik,  and  stretching  some  distance  beyond 
Basra. 

''  In  America  we  think  of  Arabia  as  a  land  of  deserts 
south  of  Palestine,"  I  said. 

^'  All  who  speak  Arabian  are  Arabs,"  said  the  emir, 
modestly,  but  decisively,  ^'  and  where  they  live  is 
Arabia." 

Ahmed  Kadry  of  Damascus,  the  prince's  personal 
physician,  supplemented  the  statement. 

^'  In  the  territory  indicated,"  he  explained,  ^'  most 
of  the  inhabitants  speak  Arabian,  although  there  are 
populations  there  that  do  not  speak  it.  Many  foreigners 
believe  the  Arabs  in  the  south  to  be  simply  Bedouins. 
But  that  is  not  true.  The  Bedouins  are  nomadic  Arabs. 
The  word  '  bedouin '  means  '  dweller  in  a  tent.'  The 
Arabs  are  scattered  all  over  Arabia  proper,  Mesopo- 
tamia, and  Syria,  which  of  course  includes  Palestine." 

The  emir  nodded  vigorously  in  assent. 

^'  Then  you  are  asking  for  sovereignty  over  this  ter- 
ritory ? "  I  asked. 

"  Eventually,  yes,"  he  replied.  '^  At  present,  how- 
ever, we  seek  only  the  federation  of  all  the  Arabian 
lands.  It  may  be  that  the  conference  will  see  fit  to 
grant  autonomy  to  certain  districts  in  Asia  Minor  or  to 
extend  the  protectorates  of  great  powers  over  wide  areas. 
With  that  policy  we  are,  of  course,  in  sympathy.  We 
fought  with  the  Allies  in  the  war,  and  when  we  threw 
off  the  yoke  of  the  Turk  and  declared  Hedjaz  inde- 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  121 

pendent,  the  British  were  the  first  to  recognize  us  and  to 
extend  their  help." 

At  this  moment  an  English  officer  in  khaki,  who  wore 
an  Arabian  turban  like  the  others,  came  unobtrusively 
into  the  room.  He  was  a  man  of  medium  height,  with 
smooth  shaven,  regular  features.  He  had  a  fine  face, 
a  strong,  well-modeled  face,  with  a  splendid  chin  and 
well-set  eyes  that  took  a  friendly  interest  in  everything. 
He  was  introduced  as  Colonel  Lawrence.  I  had  heard 
before  that  he  had  played  an  important  part  in  the  cam- 
paign of  General  Allenby  in  Palestine,  and  realized  at 
once  that  this  was  the  modern  English  Warwick  who 
had  become  a  topic  of  conversation,  and  who  was  credited 
with  being  the  principal  power  behind  the  mission  of 
the  King  of  the  Hedjaz.  Wilson,  Clemenceau,  Eoch, 
Lloyd  George  —  these  were  figures  that  all  the  world 
knew  and  acclaimed ;  but  the  world  did  not  know  Colonel 
Edward  Lawrence,  who  proved  to  be  one  of  the  pic- 
turesque, versatile  men  of  the  conference,  and  whose 
name  will  be  met  again  in  the  future. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  words  in  which  Colonel  Law- 
rence described  himself,  after  the  first  few  pleasantries 
had  been  exchanged. 

"  Indeed,  I  'm  not  a  diplomat,"  he  said.  "  I  'm  not 
even  a  soldier  by  profession.  I  'm  a  student.  I  was  in 
Asia  Minor  on  a  scientific  mission  when  I  became  in- 
terested in  Hedjaz.  I  suppose  I  was  asked  to  help 
because  I  knew  something  about  the  country.  I  should 
like  nothing  more  than  to  get  out  of  uniform  and  back 
to  my  studies." 

Then  he  told  the  story  of  Hedjaz. 


122  THE  ADVEI^TUKES  OF 

"  The  King  of  the  Hedjaz  was  a  vassal  of  the  Turks/' 
said  Colonel  Lawrence.  ^^  By  controlling  the  king,  the 
Turks  also  controlled  Mecca  and  maintained  their  hold 
over  Islam.  When  the  British  began  to  invade  Tur- 
key, the  King  of  the  Hedjaz  came  to  us  and  asked  that 
we  recognize  him  as  an  independent  sovereign,  feed 
his  army,  and  equip  and  pay  his  troops  in  a  campaign 
against  the  Turks.  He  made  no  request  of  a  political 
nature,  saying  merely  that  he  would  come  for  his  reward 
after  the  war.  We  accepted.  The  moment  that  Hedjaz 
rose,  the  Turks  could  no  longer  depend  on  their  Arab 
troops.  They  were  compelled  to  turn  their  Arabian 
fighting  units  into  labor  battalions.  From  that  moment 
the  Turk  was  doomed. 

"  We  landed  arms  and  rations  from  Egypt  and  India 
on  the  Red  Sea  and  paid  the  troops  of  the  king.  The 
nucleus  of  his  army  was  made  up  of  tribesmen  who  had 
deserted  from  the  Turks.  The  king  grew  stronger  as 
the  war  progressed.  At  the  time  of  the  armistice  he 
had  fifty  thousand  men  in  the  field.  His  fighters  per- 
formed brilliantly  in  battle,  and  his  horsemen  led  in 
several  charges.  And  now  he  asks  that  all  the  Arabs 
be  recognized  as  one  people  under  his  sovereignty. 
When  at  the  end  of  the  war  the  king  went  on  foot  from 
Medina  to  Aleppo,  he  walked  every  step  of  the  way  on 
Arabian  soil." 

The  emir  had  become  a  listener.  Colonel  Lawrence 
had  become  the  real  spokesman  of  the  delegation  from 
Hedjaz. 

"  We  do  not  urge  that  the  King  of  the  Hedjaz  should 
have  direct  sovereignty  over  all  this  territory  as  yet/' 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  123 

lie  continued.  "  It  would  be  better  to  divide  it  into 
autonomous  zones,  forming  the  beginning  of  a  great 
Arabian  confederation.  The  zones  should  be  placed  un- 
der a  protectorate,  named  by  the  League  of  Nations. 
This  would  prevent  exploitation  by  selfish  interests." 

"  Does  not  this  plan  conflict  with  the  proposed 
Kingdom  of  Jerusalem  ?  "  I  asked. 

^'  There  is  as  yet  no  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem,"  re- 
plied Colonel  Lawrence.  '^  The  country  is  integrally 
a  part  of  Arabia,  but  the  King  of  the  Hedjaz  has  no 
objection  to  giving  autonomy  to  the  Zionists  in  the  land 
they  ask,  from  Dan  to  Beersheba.  I  think  this  can  be 
done  with  success." 

The  remark  was  translated  for  the  Emir  Feisal,  who 
had  been  listening  intently,  but  who  does  not  speak 
English.     He  nodded  his  head. 

"  We  have  a  certain  kinship  with  the  Jews,"  he  ex- 
plained in  French.  ^'  Both  Jews  and  Arabs  are  Se- 
mitic.    We  are  cousins." 

The  face  of  the  prince  to  some  extent  bore  out  this 
assertion.  It  was  a  face  of  fine  lines,  a  well  modeled 
forehead,  a  large,  sensitive  mouth,  and  a  swarthy  com- 
plexion, with  a  bit  of  a  beard  such  as  might  have  been 
worn  by  the  patriarchs  of  old.  But  the  lines  of  his 
nose  were  straight. 

^'  What  interest,  if  any,  has  Great  Britain  in  your 
plan  ?  "  I  asked  of  Colonel  Lawrence. 

^'  The  interest  of  Great  Britain  is  non-political,"  he 
replied.  ^'  Great  Britain  is  the  protector  of  so  many 
Moslems  that  it  is  to  our  interest  to  see  that  Mecca  is 
not  exploited.     If  the  Moslem  world  thought  that  Great 


124  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Britain  had  undue  influence  over  Hedjaz,  it  would  make 
trouble  for  us  with  the  Moslems  in  India." 

"  What  hope  do  you  have  that  your  plan  will  suc- 
ceed ?  " 

^'  We  have  obtained  the  support  of  Great  Britain," 
said  Colonel  Lawrence.  "  What  we  need  now  is  the 
support  of  the  United  States.  Once  we  gain  that,  I  am 
sure  the  whole  scheme  can  be  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
League  of  Nations." 

The  turbaned  black  men  of  the  Arabian  desert  served 
tea  and  cakes.  Tea  is  the  beverage  over  which  the  fate 
of  the  world  is  being  determined  at  this  conference. 
We  talked  of  many  things,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  I 
had  opened  a  new  window  on  a  little-known  corner  of 
the  world. 

The  next  day  I  sought  out  a  friend  who  possesses  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  French  foreign  affairs. 

^'  I  have  just  made  an  interesting  discovery,"  I  said. 
"  It  is  the  story  of  the  rise  of  the  house  of  Hedjaz,  the 
successor  to  the  ancient  califate  of  Bagdad,  destined  to 
rule  again  in  the  high  places  of  the  medieval  calif." 

"  It  is  an  iridescent  dream,"  he  remarked  briefly  and, 
I  thought,  not  without  a  touch  of  bitterness. 

"  How  do  you  explain  the  phenomenon  of  the  King 
of  the  Hedjaz?"  I  asked. 

"  Great  Britain,"  he  answered  sharply. 

"What  interest  has  Great  Britain  in  Hedjaz?" 

"  Well,  the  '  Temps '  says  it  cost  the  BrUish  five  and 
one  half  million  francs  a  month  for  the  expenses  of 
Hedjaz  by  the  end  of  last  summer,  and  that  over  two 
and  one  half  million  francs  were  paid  monthly  to  the 


THE  fouetee:^'  poi:n'ts  125 

Emir  Feisal  as  chief  of  the  Arab  Army  of  the  ISTorth." 
"And  why  did  Hedjaz,  a  country  without  influence, 
whose  help  in  the  war  was  hardly  as  important  as  that 
of  the  minor  countries  of  the  Continent,  get  two  dele- 
gates at  the  Peace  Conference  ?  '^ 

"  Because  Great  Britain  urged  it,  and  France  ac- 
ceded. Confronted  with  the  w^ishes  of  the  two  most 
interested  powders,  the  United  States  gave  its  consent," 
said  my  informant.  "  That  is  all.  By  the  way,  as 
you  are  interested,"  he  added,  '^  I  would  advise  you 
to  consult  the  secret  agreement  between  France,  Eng- 
land, and  Russia,  the  geography  of  the  Suez  Canal  and 
the  route  to  India,  and  the  story  of  French  and  German 
commercial  enterprise  in  Asia  Minor.  If  that  does  not 
suffice,  come  to  me  again." 

We  go  back  then  to  the  secret  treaties.  Truly  Trot- 
zky,  commissioner  of  foreign  affairs  for  soviet  Russia, 
was  a  friend  of  the  uninformed  when  he  rummaged  in 
the  czar's  lumber-room  and  found  these  little  helps  to  an 
understanding  of  secret  diplomacy.  One  of  them  is  a 
memorandum  reporting  the  result  of  negotiations  at 
London  and  Petrograd  in  the  spring  of  1916.  It  out- 
lines the  following  zones  of  influence  in  Asia  Minor: 

France  and  Great  Britain  are  disposed  to  recognize  and  to  pro- 
tect an  independent  Arab  state  or  a  confederation  of  Arab  states 
under  the  suzerainty  of  an  Arab  chief,  in  two  zones  in  Asia  Minor. 
France  will  have  the  rijrht  of  priority  of  enterprises  and  loans  in 
its  zone,  and  Great  Britain  the  same  privileges  in  its  zone.  France 
and  Great  Britain  in  their  respective  zones  alone  will  furnish 
foreign  counselors  and  functionaries  at  the  request  of  the  proposed 
Arab  state. 

In  the  zones  France  and  Great  Britain  will  be  authorized  to 
establish  a  direct  or  indirect  administration  or  any  control  they 


126  THE  ADVENTURES  OF    • 

desire  or  judge  suitable  to  establish  after  an  understanding  with 
the  Arab  Government. 

France  is  to  receive  as  her  zone  the  coast  strip  of  Syria,  the 
Addansk  district,  and  the  territory  bounded  on  the  south  by  a  line 
running  through  Ajutab-Mardin  to  the  future  Russian  boundary, 
and  on  the  north  by  a  line  running  through  Ala  Daga,  Kosanya, 
Ak  Daga,  Yildiz  Daga,  Zara,  Egin  and  Kharput. 

Great  Britain  acquires  as  her  zone  the  southern  part  of  Meso- 
potamia with  Bagdad,  and  reserves  for  herself  in  Syria  the  ports 
of  Haifa  and  St.  Jean  d'Acre,  Haifa  to  be  a  free  port  for  French 
commerce. 

Alexandretta  in  the  French  zone  is  declared  a  free  port  for 
British  commerce. 

With  the  aim  of  conserving  the  religious  interests  of  the  Allied 
powers,  Palestine,  with  the  sacred  places,  is  to  be  separated  from 
Turkish  territory  and  is  to  be  subject  to  a  special  regime  by 
agreement  between  Russia,  France,  and  England. 

.  I  soon  found  that  the  French  regarded  the  claims  of 
Hedjaz  as  decidedly  antagonistic  to  the  wishes  of  France 
in  Asia  Minor.  Moreover,  it  was  felt  that  the  manner 
in  which  Hedjaz  had  been  quietly  supported  by  Great 
Britain  at  the  conference  indicated  that  Great  Britain 
was  trying  to  gain  a  wider  sphere  of  influence  in  Asia 
Minor  than  the  original  secret  agreement  permitted. 
Most  confusing,  however,  was  the  fact  that  although 
the  Hedjaz  delegation  expressed  the  warmest  friend- 
liness for  the  Zionists  who  wanted  a  Jerusalem  of  their 
own,  the  English  Zionists  repulsed  their  overtures  and 
declared  emphatically  that  the  new  Jewish  state  must 
be  free  from  all  Arab  interference,  and  that  no  ar- 
rangement giving  them  autonomy  under  the  nominal 
sovereignty  of  Hedjaz  within  an  Arabian  confedera- 
tion would  be  countenanced. 

As  early  as  February  6  the  storm  broke.  From  a 
discussion  of  the  relations  of  the  Czccho-Slovaks  and 
the  Poles,  the  council  of  the  five,  including  the  President 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  127 

of  the  United  States,  tlie  prime  ministers  of  France, 
Great  Britain,  and  Italy  and  a  representative  of  Japan, 
turned  to  hear  the  cause  of  Hedjaz,  presented  by  the 
Emir  Feisal. 

In  his  memorandum  the  Emir  Feisal  named  six  di- 
visions of  Arabia  in  which  he  was  interested:  Syria, 
which  he  regarded  as  sufficiently  advanced  for  autono- 
mous government ;  Irak  and  Djezireh,  both  parts  of 
Mespotamia,  which  he  said  should  come  under  the  pro- 
tectorate of  ''  one  of  the  great  powers  "  for  the  early  ex- 
ploitation of  their  resources;  Hedjaz,  which  was  com- 
pletely independent;  Nedjed,  in  the  interior,  and  Ye- 
men, on  the  Red  sea,  which  were  considered  able  to 
regulate  their  affairs  with  the  help  of  Hedjaz  and  with- 
out interference  from  the  Peace  Conference.  As  for 
Palestine,  the  memorandum  set  forth  that  the  enor- 
mous majority  of  the  population  was  Arabian,  but  that, 
not  wishing  to  assume  responsibility  for  regulating  the 
affairs  of  the  many  races  and  religions  represented  here, 
Hedjaz  was  willing  that  this  also  should  come  under  the 
protection  of  a  great  power,  the  dominant  position  of  the 
Arabs  being  meanwhile  recognized. 

The  hearing  aroused  considerable  French  antago- 
nism. The  attitude  of  the  French  Government  may  be 
guessed  partly  from  the  comment  in  the  semi-official 
newspaper,  "  Le  Temps,"  which  directed  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  "  great  power "  which  Hedjaz  de- 
sired should  be  given  a  mandate  in  Mesopotamia  and 
Palestine  was  none  other  than  Great  Britain,  and  that 
this  was  hardly  in  keeping  with  the  declaration  of  the 
Arab  king  that  he  was  under  no  political  obligations  to 


128  THE  ADVEIs^TURES  OF 

the  British.  The  ^'  Temps  "  moreover  said  of  Hedjaz 
that  "  its  history  is  brief,  but  its  appetite  is  very  great," 
and  spoke  of  ''  the  substitution  of  a  Bedouin  imperialism 
for  a  Turkish  imperialism." 

Frenchmen  said  bluntly  that  if  the  dream  of  Hedjaz 
were  realized,  Hedjaz  would  become  the  center  of  a 
great  "  fictional  "  empire  running  from  Akabah  and 
perhaps  Ma'an  on  the  north  as  far  south  as  the  British 
protectorate  at  Aden,  including  all  Arabia,  and  also  all 
Turkish  territory  where  the  Arab  tongue  is  spoken, 
including  Syria,  Alexandretta,  Kurdistan,  and  AEesopo- 
tamia.  The  French  also  said  that  Syria  was  under 
the  rule  of  the  Bedouin  Arabs  only  from  a.  d.  635  to 
656;  so  that  Hedjaz  could  not  contend  that  it  was  re- 
covering historic  rights  for  itself. 

A  few  days  after  the  Emir  Feisal  appeared  before 
the  council  another  attempt  was  made  by  Hedjaz  to 
build  up  its  claim.  This  occurred  at  the  plenary  ses- 
sion of  the  Peace  Conference  on  February  14,  when 
Rustem  Haida,  in  commenting  on  the  covenant  of  the 
League  of  Nations,  which  had  just  been  read  by  Presi- 
dent Wilson,  contributed  this  gratuitous  kick  at  the 
Anglo-French  agreement  affecting  Asia  Minor : 

In  clause  19  of  the  covenant  we  read  propositions  particularly 
applying  to  the  nationalities  that  have  been  Fiberated  from  the 
Turkish  yoke,  and  there  the  word  "mandate"  is  used,  but  the 
definition  of  that  word  is  not  given.  It  remains  vague  and  unde- 
fined. On  the  interpretation  that  will  be  given  to  that  word  de- 
pends the  freedom  of  liberated  populations.  This  will  be  seen 
when  the  discussion  which  it  is  not  intended  to  begin  to-day  will 
be  instituted.  P'or  the  present  I  wish  to  say  that  this  article 
leaves  to  the  nations  liberated  from  the  Turkish  domination  the 
right  to  choose  the  power  from  which  they  will  ask  help  and  ad- 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  129 

vice.  Now,  we  know  that  there  is  in  existence  a  secret  covenant 
to  divide  this  nation  of  ours  without  consulting  us.  We  ask 
whether  such  a  convention,  from  the  very  fact  of  this  covenant, 
has  become  null  and  void.  We  thank  all  the  powers  for  the  part 
they  have  taken  for  the  drafting  of  an  act  the  result  of  which  will 
be  to  give  welcome  guarantees  to  all  the  small  nationalities. 

Now  comes  the  second  chapter  in  this  story  of  near 
Eastern  intrigue.  When  the  Zionists  of  England  re- 
jected the  pretensions  of  Hedjaz  to  sovereignty  over 
Palestine,  the  affair  became  more  confusing  than  ever 
to  the  lay  mind.  Ostensibly  Hedjaz  was  in  Paris  with 
the  full  consent  of  the  British  Government,  which  had 
even  helped  it  get  a  hearing.  On  the  other  hand  there 
was  no  doubt  that  the  Zionist  movement,  which  aimed 
at  autonomous  government  for  the  Jews  of  Jerusalem 
under  a  British  protectorate,  was  opposed  to  the  as- 
pirations of  Hedjaz.  Moreover,  to  some  extent  the 
Zionists  had  already  obtained  the  favor  of  the  British 
Government  for  their  enterprise,  for  there  was  on  rec- 
ord a  declaration  made  by  the  British  secretary  of  state 
for  foreign  affairs  to  Lord  Rothschild,  which  read: 
"  His  Majesty's  government  view  with  favor  t^o  estab- 
lishment in  Palestine  of  a  national  home  for  the  Jew- 
ish people,  and  will  use  their  best  endeavors  to  facilitate 
the  achievement  of  this  object,  it  being  clearly  under- 
stood that  nothing  shall  be  done  which  may  prejudice  the 
civil  and  religious  rights  and  political  status  enjoyed 
by  the  Jews  in  any  other  country."  This  declaration 
had  won  the  approval  of  President  Wilson  and  of  most 
of  the  governments  represented  in  Paris.  To  observers 
at  the  conference  it  began  to  look  as  if  the  British 


130  THE  adve:n'tures  of 

were  divided  between  Hedjaz  and  Zion,  and  that  one 
group  was  evidently  striving  to  extend  the  sphere  of 
British  influence  much  farther  than  had  ever  been 
contemplated  either  by  the  Zionists  or  the  French. 

On  March  1  the  case  for  Zion  was  placed  before  the 
Council  of  Ten  by  the  representatives  of  the  Jews  in 
Palestine,  Dr.  !N'ahum  Sokolow,  Rabbi  Weizmann,  and 
M.  Ussischkin.  They  spoke  on  behalf  of  a  home  in  Pal- 
estine for  Jews  who  recognize  no  nationality  but  their 
own,  who  favor  a  revival  of  the  Hebrew  national  con- 
sciousness and  of  the  Hebrew  language.  They  set  forth 
that  the  present  Jewish  population  was  only  100,000, 
but  that  there  v^as  room  for  1,000,000  Jews.  They 
asked  that  a  Jewish  state  be  delimited  out  of  Syria  from 
Dan  to  Beersheba,  and  that  it  be  placed  under  the  pro- 
tection of  Great  Britain. 

On  the  same  day  the  representatives  of  the  American 
Jews,  Julian  W.  Mack,  Louis  Marshall,  Stephen  S. 
Wise,  and  Bernard  G.  Richards,  who  were  instructed 
to  speak  for  3,000,000  Jews  of  the  United  States  at  a 
convention  held  in  Philadelphia  in  1918,  submitted  to 
President  Wilson  their  views  on  how  this  trusteeship 
of  Palestine  might  be  administered  to  aid  the  JewS. 
They  suggested  that  the  Jews  there  be  represented  in 
executive  and  legislative  bodies  and  in  public  office,  that 
communities  be  encouraged  to  become  autonomous,  that 
assistance  be  given  from  the  public  funds  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  inhabitants  without  distinction  of  race 
or  creed,  that  Hebrew  be  made  one  of  the  official  lan- 
guages, that  the  Jewish  Sabbath  and  holy  days  be  pro- 
claimed days  of  rest,  and  that  a  citizenship  of  Pales- 


THE  FOURTEElSr  POINTS  131 

tine  be  constituted  and  recognized  under  the  protec- 
torate of  the  mandatory  power. 

'Not  all  of  the  arguments  advanced  on  behalf  of  a 
Jewish  Palestine  were  based  on  religious  or  racial 
grounds.  A  part  of  British  opinion  declared  that  such 
a  state  would  be  a  bulwark  for  British  rule  in  the  East. 
The  Suez  Canal  and  the  British  Empire  in  Asia  were 
considered  vulnerable  through  Mesopotamia  and  Egypt. 
There  was  constant  danger  of  religious  agitation  that 
might  become  anti-British  in  character.  A  Jewish  Pal- 
estine would  safeguard  the  canal  and  the  East.  The 
British  Palestine  conamittee  advanced  the  argument  that 
the  organization  of  a  Jewish  state  would  win  the  favor 
of  the  3,000,000  Jews  in  the  United  States  for  Great 
Britain,  many  of  whom  occupied  places  of  influence  and 
trust,  and  so  help  offset  the  suspicion  of  Great  Britain's 
motives  that  is  frequently  expressed  by  Americans  of 
Irish  and  German  descent,  and  which  is  fed  by  the  his- 
toric picture  of  England  in  American  school-books.  A 
few  significant  sentences  from  the  declaration  of  this 
committee  may  throw  light  on  this  argument ; 

Great  Britain  must  either  get  into  very  close  association  with 
the  United  States  or  run  imminent  risk  of  a  clash  with  the  United 
States.  ...  A  war  between  England  and  America  would  prob- 
ably be  the  death  of  both  countries.  .  .  .  Close  association  be- 
tween England  and  America  would  be  the  surest  guarantee  of 
world  peace.  .  .  .  With  all  these  powerful  elements  arrayed 
against  good  relations  between  England  and  America  it  is  plain 
that  this  country  will  need  to  rally  in  America  all  the  friends 
she  can  if  the  catastrophe  of  a  breach  is  to  be  avoided.  .  .  . 
American  Jews  have  not  merely  been  pro-ally,  but  specifically 
pro-English.  .  .  .  Any  action  by  the  British  Government  which 
could  be  justly  interpreted  as  wanting  in  fidelity  or  cordiality  to 
the  great  Jewish  ideal  of  a  Jewish  Palestine  would  be  counted 
\n  America  by  American  Jews  as  a  breach  of  faitf;. 


132  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

When  tlie  Jews  in  Paris  made  their  plea  to  the  Peace 
Conference,  a  letter  breathing  the  spirit  of  most  friendly 
sjTupathy  and  interest  was  written  by  the  Emir  Eeisal 
to  Dr.  Felix  Frankfurter,  one  of  the  Americans  sup- 
porting Jewish  aims  in  Paris.     The  letter  declared : 

We  Arabs,  especially  the  educated  among  us,  look  with  the 
deepest  sympathy  on  the  Zionist  movement.  Our  deputation  here 
in  Paris  is  fully  acquainted  with  the  proposals  submitted  yester- 
day by  the  Zionist  organization  to  the  Peace  Conference,  and  we 
regard  them  as  moderate  and  proper.  We  will  do  our  best,  in 
so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  to  help  them  through:  we  will  wish 
the  Jews  a  most  hearty  welcome  home.  .  .  .  The  Jewish  movement 
is  national  and  not  imperialist;  our  movement  is  national  and  not 
imperialist;  there  is  room  in  Syria  for  us  both. 

The  letter  further  declared  that  the  aims  of  both  the 
Jews  and  the  Arabs  had  been  misrepresented  to  the 
Arab  and  Jewish  peasantry,  and  closed  with  the  state- 
ment that  there  were  differences  not  on  principle,  but 
only  on  matters  of  detail,  and  added  the  hope  that  these 
might  be  adjusted  by  ^'  mutual  good  will."  Throughout 
the  pages  of  this  remarkable  letter  I  seemed  to  hear  the 
voice  of  a  young  and  talented  diplomat,  a  man  who  wore 
a  turban,  but  had  the  uniform  of  an  English  colonel  be- 
neath his  flowing  robe. 

The  attitude  of  the  Emir  Feisal  may  have  been 
strongly  conciliatory,  but  the  Arabs  in  Palestine  did  not 
seem  to  agree  with  him.  Reports  reached  the  confer- 
ence that  wide-spread  anti-Zionist  movements  were  on 
foot.  Threats  of  violence  against  the  Jews  were  re- 
ported to  Paris.  The  news  made  a  painful  impres- 
sion. The  delegates  who  were  not  directly  interested 
in  the  fate  of  Asia  Minor  began  to  feel  that  Palestine 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  133 

was  far  from  being  a  unit  on  the  subject  of  its  future 
government.  The  American  delegates  expressed  them- 
selves at  a  loss  to  judge  the  situation  properly.  They 
had  not  taken  a  decisive  stand  on  the  claims  of  the  King 
of  the  Hedjaz,  because  the  United  States  was  not  in- 
timately interested  in  the  disposition  of  Mesopotamia 
and  Syria  except  in  the  general  application  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  President  Wilson.  They  preferred  that  these 
questions  should  be  settled  first  by  the  powers  directly 
concerned.  On  the  other  hand,  they  were  disposed  to 
look  favorably  upon  the  scheme  of  Jewish  self-govern- 
ment in  Palestine,  because  of  pressure  brought  to  bear 
by  the  Jews  at  home,  and  because  of  the  American  de- 
sire to  aid  oppressed  minorities  to  develop  unhampered. 

Paris  was  the  center  of  several  movements  against  a 
Jewish  Palestine.  The  Frenc'h  Government  was  luke- 
warm to  the  idea  at  first,  and  French  Jews  as  a  whole 
showed  little  interest.  An  organization  called  "  Les 
Amis  de  la  Terre  Sainte  ''  be<ran  issuing  pamphlets  at- 
tacking the  movement.  The  antagonism  of  the  French 
Government,  however,  was  not  thought  to  be  based  on 
religious  grounds,  but  rather  on  a  suspicion  that  Great 
Britain  was  getting  a  little  too  much  influence  in  Asia 
Minor.  By  the  time  the  Jewish  delegates  came  be- 
fore the  Council  of  Ten  the  views  of  the  French  Gov- 
ernment appeared  to  have  undergone  a  change,  and  M. 
Andre  Tardieu,  the  wide-awake  member  of  the  French 
delegation,  declared  that  France  would  not  oppose  plac- 
ing Palestine  under  an  English  mandate.  This  helped 
clear  the  atmosphere. 

But  the  Peace  Conference  was  not  yet  ready  to  act. 


134  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

The  problem  of  Arabian  sovereignty  involved  the  Jew- 
ish Palestine,  and  the  creation  of  the  Jewish  Palestine 
affected  the  disposition  of  Syria  and  the  secret  agree- 
ment regarding  Asia  Minor  as  a  whole.  Other  questions 
came  up, —  those  of  the  Turks  in  Anatolia,  the  Greeks 
on  the  sea  coast,  the  future  of  Constantinople,  the  cali- 
f ate,  the  proposal  of  an  American  mandate  for  Armenia, 
—  all  more  or  less  connected  with  the  settlement  of  the 
problems  of  Hedjaz  and  Palestine.  The  Peace  Confer- 
ence finally  determined  that  it  was  insufficiently  in- 
formed. It  voted  to  appoint  an  international  commis- 
sion to  visit  Asia  Minor  and  gather  data  on  all  these 
questions.  The  Americans  named  Henry  Churchill 
King,  president  of  Oberlin  College;  Charles  R.  Crane, 
who  represented  President  Wilson  in  a  diplomatic  mis- 
sion to  Russia  in  1917  and  was  treasurer  of  the  Ameri- 
can committee  for  Armenian  and  Syrian  relief;  Pro- 
fessor Albert  Howe  Lybyer  of  the  University  of  Illinois ; 
Professor  George  Redington  Montgomery  of  New  York 
University,  who  was  special  assistant  to  the  American 
ambassador  in  Constantinople  in  1916;  and  Captain 
William  Yale.  The  British  named  Sir  Henry  McMa- 
hon,  a  student  of  Indian  and  Egyptian  affairs,  and 
Commander  D.  G.  Hogarth,  a  scholar  well  versed  in 
the  problems  of  the  near  East. 

The  appointment  of  the  commission  was  not  regarded 
with  a  great  deal  of  enthusiasm  in  American  or  British 
circles,  for  it  was  not  at  all  certain  that  these  men 
would  present  a  unanimous  report;  and  if  they  did,  it 
might  not  be  approved  by  the  conference  even  then. 
Experts  had  made  investigations  before,  had  reported, 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  135 

and  had  seen  their  reports  thrown  out.  A  thorough  in- 
quiry might  take  many  months.  But  the  delegates  to 
the  Peace  Conference  felt  that  it  would  be  months  before 
they  got  around  to  the  treaty  with  Turkey,  and  the  com- 
mission might  well  employ  the  time  available  till  then. 
The  departure  of  the  international  commission  was  de- 
layed, however,  and  finally  there  was  left  only  the  Amer- 
ican body,  which  inaugurated  a  series  of  hearings 
throughout  Asia  Minor  and  during  the  summer  amassed 
a  vast  amount  of  information.  It  returned  to  Paris  the 
latter  part  of  August  convinced  that  the  United  States 
should  accept  a  mandate  in  Asia  Minor. 

So  much  for  the  Emir  Eeisal  and  the  picturesque  rise 
to  power  of  the  King  of  the  Hedjaz.  His  case  having 
been  presented,  the  emir  sailed  for  home.  But  he  did 
not  forget  to  send  a  worthy  gift  for  the  hospitality  he 
had  enjoyed.  On  June  4  it  was  reported  that  a  new 
Arabian  mission,  composed  of  Arab  officers  and  notables, 
had  embarked  on  a  Erench  cruiser  for  Marseilles.  At 
the  head  of  the  mission  was  General  N^oury  Said  Pacha, 
chief  of  staff  for  the  Emir  Eeisal  and  well  known  in 
Paris.  Among  his  effects  the  general  carried  sixteen 
blooded  Arabian  steeds,  the  gift  of  the  King  of  the 
Hedjaz,  through  the  Emir  Eeisal,  to  his  excellency,  the 
President  of  the  Erench  republic.  Colonel  Lawrence 
had  gained  the  consent  of  the  British  and  hoped  to  win 
the  Americans  to  his  point  of  view.  Was  it  likely  that 
the  sixteen  blooded  Arabian  steeds  of  General  Koury 
Said  Pacha  might  help  win  a  favorable  opinion  from 
the  one  great  power  that  remained  to  be  appeased  ? 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  story  of  a  little  town  called  Fiume,  and  how  the  amazing 
unanimity  with  which  all  parties  concerned  applied  the  Fourteen 
Points  almost  disrupted  the  Peace'  Conference. 

If  you  walked  rapidly  along  the  Boulevard  des 
Capucines  from  the  Place  de  I'Opera  to  the  Madeleine, 
you  might  never  notice  the  Rue  Edouard  Sept.  A 
most  unostentatious  street  it  is,  gliding  quietly  out  of 
the  boulevard  at  the  first  turning  beyond  the  Rue 
Scribe;  and  yet,  had  you  walked  here  on  the  day  of 
which  T  am  going  to  speak,  you  might  have  been  struck 
by  the  unusual  activity  manifested  here.  Large  closed 
limousines  passed  in  and  out ;  a  messenger  on  a  bicycle 
hurried  down  the  rue;  a  uniformed  functionnaire  from 
some  bureau  or  other  arrived  with  formal-looking  en- 
velopes ;  a  man  dragged  a  mail-bag  along  the  walk,  and 
disappeared  around  tlie  bend.  You  were  prompted  to 
follow.  The  windows  of  an  art  shop  halted  you  for  a 
moment;  you  glanced  at  the  tempting  display  of  mag- 
nificent colored  engravings,  at  the  work  of  Poulbot, 
Jonas,  and  Ilansi.  Then  you  passed  on,  and  scarce 
three  hundred  yards  beyond  the  rue  lost  itself  in  a  sort 
of  arcaded  circle  of  buildings  that  constitute  the  Hotel 
Edouard  Sept,  and  there,  in  the  center  of  the  circle, 
you  found  the  large  equestrian  statue  of  King  Edward 
VII,  from  which  both  the  rue  and  the  hotel  take  the 
name. 

136 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  137 

Two  soldiers  in  iiiiiforins  of  olive-green  were  on 
guard  before  the  hotel.  Above  the  entrance  flew  the 
flag  of  the  House  of  Savoy.  The  soldiers  nod  infor- 
mally, and  you  pass  into  the  hotel,  and  here,  for  the  pe- 
riod of  the  Peace  Conference  at  least,  you  stand  upon 
the  domain  of  Italy. 

Paris  has  faded  away;  in  this  cul-de-sac  you  do  not 
even  hear  the  steady,  drumming  noise  of  the  big  motor- 
busses  that  run  from  the  Bastille  to  the  Madeleine ;  no 
maniacal  tooting  of  motor-horns  annoys  you,  no  ringing 
laughter  of  a  group  of  American  doughboys  on  leave 
comes  to  your  ears.  This  might  be  Rome.  The  very 
atmosphere  of  this  reception-hall  is  like  that  in  one  of 
the  quiet  hostelries  round  about  the  Pincio  or  on  the 
Via  I^azionale.  The  man  in  the  Prince  Albert  who 
comes  forward  to  take  your  name  is  assuredly  direct 
from  Italy;  the  placards  on  the  walls  are  Italian;  on 
the  tables  in  the  lounge  just  beyond  lie  the  ^^  Tribuna,'' 
the  "  Stampa,"  and  the  ^'  Corriere  della  Sera  " ;  and 
there  is  wine  of  Italy,  too,  in  the  straw-covered  bottles 
in  the  refectory  just  behind  the  lounge. 

Here  sooner  or  later  one  touches  elbows  with  that 
numerous  host  which  is  representing  the  Italian  cause 
at  the  Peace  Conference,  for  this  is  Italy's  stamping- 
ground.  Here  one  may  meet,  first,  the  men  of  the 
Italian  delegation,  including  Vittoria  Orlando,  prime 
minister,  at  its  head ;  then  Baron  Sidney  Sonnino,  min- 
ister of  foreign  affairs,  and  regarded  by  many  as  the 
guiding  hand  in  Italian  statecraft;  the  shrewd,  prac- 
tised, and  powerful  son  of  a  Jewish  father  and  a  Scotch 
mother;  then  the  Marquis   Salvage  Baggi;   Salvatore 


138  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Barzilai,  and  Antonio  Salandra,  former  prime  minister 
of  Italy.  Here  also  come  General  Diaz,  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  armies  of  Italy;  General  di  Robilant; 
Count  Bonin  Langare,  Italian  ambassador  to  France; 
the  Marquis  Imperiali,  Italian  ambassador  to  the  Court 
of  St.  James's ;  Count  di  Cellere,  Italian  ambassador  to 
the  United  States ;  and  Signor  Crespi,  minister  of  food 
supplies  and  distribution,  a  notable  group  of  men,  who 
have  written  their  names  in  indelible  ink  on  many  a 
page  of  the  history  of  the  conference. 

At  this  particular  time  our  favorite  captain  has  ar- 
ranged a  meeting  with  Signor  Orlando  for  a  limited 
group  of  American  writers.  You  should  know  our  cap- 
tain —  a  tall,  powerful  figure,  with  large,  broad  shoul- 
ders and  a  big,  well-modeled  head ;  a  man  who,  you  say, 
would  make  a  fine  hero  for  grand  opera.  Indeed  he 
was,  not  many  years  ago,  singing  in  grand  opera  in  New 
York  and  Chicago.  Later  he  answered  the  call  of  his 
native  land,  and  fought  in  the  mountain  fastnesses  be- 
yond the  Isonzo,  and  now  he  is  officer  of  liaison  between 
the  Italian  delegation  and  the  American  press,  for  Italy 
knows  well  the  need  and  the  value  of  illuminating  prop- 
aganda. Too  well,  in  fact,  for  I  could  paper  the  walls 
of  a  large-sized  room  with  the  gaily  colored  maps  of  the 
New  Italy  that  have  come  to  me  since  the  conference 
began. 

Our  small  group  is  nearly  complete.  The  captain 
comes  in,  wheels  about,  and  looks  at  his  watch. 

"  Six  o'clock,  and  two  men  missing!  And  I  said  a 
quarter  to  six,  five  forty-five  precisely!  And  he  is 
waiting  for  us  up-stairs!     I  can't  think  of  it!     He 


THE  FOUETEE]^  POINTS  139 

must  not  be  kept  waiting !     I  will  call  it  off ;  I  will  tell 
him  — '^ 

The  stragglers  arrive,  and  the  captain  is  appeased. 
We  mount  the  stairs,  two  steps  at  a  time.  We  hurry 
down  the  velvet-carpeted  corridors.  The  door  opens. 
Ah,  he  is  there! 

I  suppose  that  in  the  United  States  we  would  regard 
Signer  Orlando  as  looking  much  like  a  prosperous,  se- 
date business  man,  a  successful  man  who  has  not  wor- 
ried too  much,  who  has  had  time  to  put  on  a  bit  of 
avoirdupois,  who  can  sit  back  and  finger  his  watch- 
chain,  and  smile,  and  nod  that  wonderfully  fine  head 
of  his,  and  assume  a  complacent,  satisfied  air  —  and 
make  you  feel  complacent  and  at  home,  also. 

That  is  the  way  Signer  Orlando  looked,  and  that  is 
exactly  opposite  from  the  way  Signer  Orlando  felt,  for 
at  the  moment  when  we  came  to  talk  with  him  he  was 
sitting  on  a  cushion  of  needles.  His  cause  had  met 
formidable  opposition  in  the  conference;  there  were 
men  in  Paris  crying  "  Imperialism !  "  and  there  were 
men  in  Rome  crying  "  Do  something !  "  and  yet  here 
was  Signer  Orlando,  torn  between  two  policies,  sitting 
here  before  us,  smiling  blandly,  and  speaking  of  the 
excellent  ties  that  bind  the  Italian  and  the  American 
people.     That  is  why  Signor  Orlando  is  a  diplomat. 

Per  fully  thirty  minutes  the  minister  spoke  on  Italo- 
American  amity,  and  then  some  one  asked  him  the  ques- 
tion that  was  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  all  of  us,  and 
in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  Paris  and  Eome  and  all 
the  world  that  was  watching  the  subtle  manoeuvers  of 
the  diplomats  at  the  Peace  Conference : 


140  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

"  Will  Italy  give  up  her  claims  to  Fiume  ?  " 

"  Xo.  Absolutely  no."  And  the  smile  faded,  and 
the  lips  of  the  minister  became  firmly  compressed. 

"  Will  Italy  compromise  on  some  of  her  claims  under 
the  treaty  of  London  ?  " 

^^  Xo.  The  treaty  of  London  is  a  compromise.  The 
claims  of  Italy  were  recognized  as  just  by  her  allies, 
who  signed  the  treaty  and  who  will  stand  by  their  word. 
Triest  and  Gorizia  are  guaranteed  by  the  treaty,  and 
Fiume  must  be  ours,  for  Fiume  is  Italian." 

Triest,  Gorizia,  Fiume  —  words  that  unlocked  hid- 
den chambers  in  one's  memory,  that  called  up  images 
hidden  away  through  the  years.  Immediately  there 
came  to  me  the  picture  of  the  mellow  Italian  sky,  and 
the  purple  waters  of  the  bay  of  Genoa  beating  them- 
selves into  long  lines  of  white  foam  on  the  rocky  Li- 
gurian  coast.  A  great  heap  of  bronze  rising  against  the 
sky-line  —  the  memorial  to  the  Thousand  of  Garibaldi 
who  sailed  from  Quarto.  And  before  the  monument  a 
wreath,  and  a  wide  placard,  with  but  one  name  — 
Triest !  And  then  the  picture  of  a  little  town  on  the 
Riviera,  a  street  of  drooping  shade  trees  on  a  smiling 
morning  in  the  spring  of  1915,  and  two  troubadours 
walking  aimlessly  about,  strumming  their  guitars,  and 
singing  melodiously  of  the  lost  lands  and  the  unredeemed 
brothers  of  Triest,  Gorizia,  and  Fiume. 

^^  We  stand,"  continued  the  minister,  "  wholly  upon 
our  claims,  which  were  found  just  in  the  treaty  of  Lon- 
don, and  which,  moreover,  we  base  upon  the  principles 
of  President  Wilson." 

The  secret  treaty  and  the  Fourteen  Points,  both  guar- 


THE  FOUETEEX  POINTS  141 

anteeing  the  claims  of  Italy !     Let  us  read  again  what 
President  Wilson  said : 

Point  9.  A   readjustment  of  the    frontiers   of   Italy   should   be 
effected  along  clearly  recognizable  lines  of  nationality. 
•  Point  10.  The  peoples  of  Austria-Hungary,  whose  place  among 
the  nations   we  wish  to  see  safeguarded  and  assured,  should  be 
accorded  the  freest  opportunity  of  autonomous  development. 

Point  11.  Rumania,  Serbia  and  Montenegro  should  be  evac- 
uated; occupied  territories  restored;  Serbia  accorded  free  and 
secure  access  to  the  sea;  and  the  relations  of  the  several  Balkan 
states  to  one  another  determined  by  friendly  counsel  along  his- 
torically established  lines  of  allegiance  and  nationality;  and  in- 
ternational guarantees  of  the  political  and  economic  independence 
and  territorial  integrity  of  the  several  Balkan  states  should  be 
entered  into. 

These  three  points  are  involved.  It  is  because 
Italy^s  claims  touch  upon  the  territory  of  the  former 
Austro-Hungarian  monarchy,  and  upon  land  properly 
comprised  within  the  domain  of  the  nations  on  the  east- 
ern coast  of  the  Adriatic,  that  I  give  the  points  which 
ostensibly  deal  only  with  the  Balkan  peoples.  For  this 
is  the  crux  of  the  matter.  Italy's  claims  were  being 
opposed  by  those  very  peoples  —  by  Jugo  Slavia,  or 
rather,  as  it  formally  styles  itself  now,  the  Kingdom  of 
the  Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes,  and  between  Italy  and 
the  Jugo  Slavs  the  matter  had  passed  from  the  stage 
of  friendly  negotiation  and  become  a  controversy. 

There  are  available  to-day  yards  of  maps,  whole 
kilometers  of  maps.  There  are  tons  and  tons  of  leaf- 
lets, pamphlets,  books,  copies  of  documents.  There  are 
statistics  to  prove  any  contention  you  wish  to  support. 
There  are  hand-books  that  will  provide  you  with  argu- 
ments on  any  subject,  as  if  this  were  an  American 
political  campaign.     There  is  everything  except  the  as- 


142  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

surance  that  the  problem  of  the  Adriatic  will  be  settled 
80  as  to  avoid  a  future  recurrence  of  war. 

What  are  Italy's  claims?  That  must  be  the  first 
question. 

It  is  illuminating  to  consider  what  Italy's  claims 
have  been  in  comparison  with  what  they  are  to-day,  for 
Italy's  attempt  to  occupy  her  unredeemed  provinces  and 
other  lands  along  the  Adriatic  has  passed  through  three 
stages.  The  first  stage  was  that  of  negotiation  between 
Austria  and  Italy,  before  Italy  joined  the  Allies  in  the 
war.  The  second  was  that  of  negotiation  between  Italy 
and  the  Allies,  which  resulted  in  a  secret  agreement 
being  signed,  as  a  result  of  which  Italy  went  to  war. 
The  third  is  that  of  Italy's  fight  before  the  Peace  Con- 
ference for  the  land  promised  in  the  treaty  —  and  a 
little  bit  more.  In  each  instance,  we  find,  Italy's 
claims  grew  in  size. 

Lord  Bryce  explained  recently  that  in  1915  Austria 
offered  Italy  the  Italian-speaking  districts  of  the  Tren- 
tino  and  those  parts  of  the  Tyrol  which  had  an  Italian- 
speaking  population,  up  to  a  point  about  twenty  miles 
south  of  Botzen,  which  was  the  boundary  between  the 
Italian  and  German  languages,  and  had  been  so  since 
the  eighth  century.     Lord  Bryce  said : 

Italy  refused  this  offer,  demanding  a  frontier  somewhat  far- 
ther north,  which  would  have  given  her  not  only  all  the  Italian- 
speaking  population,  but  also  a  few  German-speaking  districts, 
including  the  town  of  Botzen,  whose  population  is  about  two- 
thirds  German-speaking,  and  the  valley  of  the  River  Adige  as 
far  north  as  the  strategic  position  of  Klausen,  between  Botzen 
and  Brixen,  where  the  Brenner  highroad  and  the  railway  de- 
scend through  a  narrow   gorge  that  forms   the  most  defensible 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  143 

point  of  that  great  line  of  communication  from  north  to  south. 
Austria  refused  this,  and  the  negotiations  were  broken  off. 

Italy  then  began  her  negotiations  with  the  Allies. 
She  would  enter  the  war  on  their  side  if  she  could  win 
back  her  unredeemed  provinces  in  that  way.  Her  de- 
mands resulted  in  the  signing  of  an  agreement  —  what 
we  now  call  the  secret  treaty  or  the  pact  of  London  on 
April  26,  1915,  approximately  one  month  before  she 
declared  war  on  Austria-Hungary.  It  was  signed  by 
the  Marquis  Imperiali  for  Italy,  Count  Benckendorf  for 
Eussia,  M.  Jules  Cambon  for  France,  and  Sir  Edward 
Grey  for  England.  It  conveys  to  Italy  considerable 
more  territory  than  the  unredeemed  provinces,  or  dis- 
tricts that  are  purely  Italian.  Without  attempting  to 
cover  all  the  ground  mentioned  in  this  treaty,  it  might 
be  said  here  that  it  gave  Italy  the  district  of  Trentino ; 
the  entire  southern  Tyrol  to  its  natural  geographical 
boundary,  the  Brenner ;  the  city  and  suburbs  of  Triest, 
Gorizia,  and  Gradisca;  all  of  Istria  to  Quarnero,  in- 
cluding Volosko  and  the  Istrian  islands  of  Cherso  and 
Lussin ;  the  province  of  DaLmatia,  including  within  its 
limits  Lissariki  and  Trebino  and  all  the  valleys  of  all 
the  rivers  flowing  into  the  sea  at  Sebenico,  with  all  their 
branches ;  a  large  number  of  islands  in  the  Adriatic  off 
the  coast  of  Dalmatia ;  then  "  in  full  right  "  Avlona,  or 
Valona,  and  a  great  many  other  concessions  which  will 
be  named  as  they  become  subject  matter  for  negotiation. 

Between  the  time  that  this  treaty  was  signed  and  the 
armistice  of  November  11,  1918,  Italy's  demands  grew 
still  larger.  When  the  Austro-Hungarian  monarchy 
crumbled,  Italy's  troops  advanced  into  Austrian  terri- 


144  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

tory  and  occupied  the  lands  outlined  in  the  secret  treaty. 
Eead  again  the  armistice  terms  with  Austria-Hungary. 
Almost  word  for  word  they  follow  the  language  of  the 
secret  treaty  on  the  subject  of  boundary-lines.  More- 
over, Italian  troops  occupied  districts  clearly  not  men- 
tioned in  the  treaty.  And  Italy  laid  claim  to  these 
and  other  parts  of  the  former  monarchy  on  the  grounds 
of  their  Italianity.  And  first  and  foremost  Italy  laid 
claim  to  Fiume,  on  the  ground  of  self-determination  of 
nationalities,  for  Fiume  had  almost  unanimously  voted 
to  join  the  Italian  kingdom. 

It  is  a  fascinating  tale,  this  story  of  Fiume.  A  small 
town  of  fewer  than  fifty  thousand  inhabitants,  it  has  be- 
come for  Italy  the  symbol  of  Italian  unity.  Italy  wants 
it  because  it  is  Italian ;  the  Jugo  Slavs  want  it  because 
it  is  the  best  seaport  of  the  great  Croatian  hinterland, 
and  because,  they  assert,  it  is  not  purely  Italian.  The 
American  President,  through  six  months  of  fruitless 
negotiation,  contended  that  Fiume  shall  be  the  nucleus 
of  a  free  state. 

Fiume  was  located  at  the  convergence  of  many  roads, 
and  became  a  city  even  in  Roman  days.  In  1471  it 
passed  under  Hapsburg  rule,  and  in  1779  was  united 
to  Hungary,  but  given  autonomous  rights  as  a  corpus 
separatum,  or  separate  body,  by  the  Empress  Maria 
Theresa.  There  is  excellent  historic  authority  for  the 
statement  that  through  a  long  series  of  years  Fiume 
fought  the  Croatian  influences.  Fiume  passed  through 
a  period  of  Napoleonic  rule,  and  from  1813  to  1822 
was  administered  by  Austria  direct.  It  then  passed 
back  to  Hungary.     During  the  Revolution  of  1848  the 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  145 

Croats  under  Ban  Jelacie  occupied  Eiume  and  held  it 
until  1869;  then  it  received  its  constitutional  liberty 
in  the  Ausgleich  and  went  back  to  Hungary. 

Now  begins  the  new  story  of  Eiume.  On  October 
18,  1918,  Andrea  Ossoinack,  deputy  for  Eiume  in  the 
Hungarian  Parliament,  rose  and  declared  that  in  view 
of  reports  that  Eiume  was  to  be  handed  over  to  the 
Croats,  he  wished  to  make  the  following  declaration: 

Austria-Hungary  having  admitted  the  principle  of  self-de- 
termination in  her  peace  proposals,  Fiume,  as  a  corpus  separatum 
claims  that  right  for  itself.  In  accordance  with  this  right  it 
wishes  to  exercise,  without  any  kind  of  hindrance,  the  right  of 
self-determination  of  the  people. 

In  his  introduction  the  deputy  said,  "  Eiume  has  not 
only  never  been  Croat,  but  has,  on  the  contrary,  al- 
ways been  Italian  in  the  past  and  must  remain  Italian 
in  the  future." 

On  October  30,  1918,  the  Italian  National  Council 
of  Eiume  issued  the  following  proclamation : 

The  Italian  National  Council  of  Fiume,  meeting  this  day  in 
plenary  session,  declares  that,  by  force  of  the  right  by  which  all 
peoples  have  acquired  national  independence  and  liberty,  the  city 
of  Fiume,  which  has  been  up  to  now  a  corpus  separatum  con- 
stituting a  national  Italian  commune,  claims  for  itself  the  right 
of  self-determination  by  the  people. 

Relying  upon  this  ground,  the  National  Council  of  Fiume  pro- 
claims the  union  of  Fiume  to  its  fatherland,  Italy. 

The  Italian  National  Council  considers  the  state  of  affairs 
brought  about  on  October  29,  1918,  as  temporary,  places  its 
rights  under  the  protection  of  America,  mother  of  liberty  and 
universal  democracy,  and  awaits  their  sanction  by  the  Peace 
Congress. 

Childlike  is  the  simple  faith  of  the  Eiumians  !  They 
place   it   in  America,   which  has  labored  most   deter- 


146  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

minedly  to  keep  the  boundary-lines  of  Italy  from  inclos- 
ing Eiume. 

The  next  document  on  the  Italian  side  of  the  ques- 
tion is  a  memorandum  presented  to  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence by  the  president  of  the  Italian  National  Council 
of  Eiume,  Dr.  Antonio  Grossich;  the  mayor,  Dr.  An- 
tonio Vio ;  and  the  deputy,  Andrea  Ossoinach.  It  sets 
forth  that  Eiume  solemnly  proclaimed  its  annexation  to 
Italy  by  a  plebiscite;  that  Eiume  regained  her  right 
freely  to  decide  her  own  destiny  upon  the  collapse  of 
Hungary;  that  Italian  is  the  language  of  commercial 
intercourse  in  Eiume,  and  that  all  the  syndics,  deputies, 
municipalities,  and  municipal  councils  have  always  been 
Italian;  that  the  commerce  of  Croatia  was  only  seven 
per  cent,  of  the  total,  the  rest  being  that  of  Hungary 
and  other  countries  of  the  hinterland;  that  the  traffic 
from  Croatia,  Slovenia,  Dalmatia,  Bosnia,  and  Herze- 
govina was  only  thirteen  per  cent,  of  the  total  from 
those  countries,  which  sent  eighty-seven  per  cent, 
through  the  Dalmatian  ports;  that  Eiume  should  be 
proclaimed  a  free  port,  for  the  use  of  all  countries  of 
the  hinterland  rather  than  the  Jugo  Slavs  alone,  if 
freedom  of  commercial  intercourse  is  to  be  granted  all 
countries  of  the  hinterland ;  and  that  if  Eiume  is  made 
an  Italian  port,  Italy  can,  at  minimum  expenditure,  in- 
sure to  it  the  necessary  maritime  connections  with  ex- 
tensive shipping  services,  whereas  in  the  hands  of  the 
Jugo  Slavs  it  would  fall  into  decay.  As  both  Hungary 
and  Jugo  Slavia  are  agricultural  states,  a  competition 
for  foreign  markets  would  certainly  arise  between  these 
two  states.     ^^  The  possession  of  Eiume  by  the  Jugo 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  147 

Slavs  might  induce  them  to  adopt  toward  Hungary  the 
same  economic  policy  Hungary  used  toward  Serbia, 
with  grave  prejudice  and  danger  to  the  peace  of  Eu- 
rope." Italy,  said  the  memorandum,  would  not  dis- 
criminate. 

The  representatives  of  Eiume  also  objected  to  the 
idea  that  the  city  should  be  annexed  to  Jugo  Slavia 
with  certain  definite  guaranties  and  privileges  to  the 
Italians,  which  they  declared  to  be  illogical  and  imprac- 
ticable, as  the  nationality  of  a  country  could  not  be 
guaranteed  by  international  treaties  or  by  any  special 
prerogatives  of  autonomy  when  it  was  known  that  the 
state  which  granted  them  would  not  respect  them. 

And  then  it  rained  figures.  Statistics  of  all  kinds, 
Italian,  Fiumian,  Serbian,  Croatian,  Slovenian,  Hun- 
garian, German,  flooded  the  mails  of  the  delegates  to 
the  Peace  Conference.  It  soon  developed  that  many 
of  the  statistics  were  accurate,  but  that  the  territory 
they  represented  was  another  matter.  And  it  also  de- 
veloped that  the  location  of  the  boundaries  of  Fiume 
was  to  have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  decision  of  the 
conference  itself. 

"  Fiume  has  46,264  inhabitants,"  said  the  Italians. 
^'  We  took  an  honest  census  immediately  after  occupa- 
tion. According  to  nationality,  the  Italians  are  62.5 
per  cent,  of  the  whole,  the  rest  being  Croats,  Slovenes, 
Serbs,  Hungarians,  and  Germans.  In  the  town  district 
90  per  cent,  of  the  Italians  are  native-born." 

''  But  Fiume  cannot  be  considered  without  its  urban 
area,"  said  the  Jugo  Slavs.  ^'  Sussak  is  inseparable 
from  Fiume,  and  is  inhabited  entirely  by  Croats,     The 


148  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

population  of  Fiume  and  Sussak  is  62,989,  of  which 
number  27,393  are  Jugo  Slavs  and  24,870  are  Ital- 
ians.'' 

"  The  Jugo  Slavs  in  their  statistics  are  not  including 
purely  the  village  of  Sussak,  but  the  entire  district  of 
Sussak  to  Buccari,  seven  miles  from  Flume's  eastern 
boundary,"  say  the  Italians.  "  The  district  has  five 
administrative  sub-communes,  and  the  village  of  Sussak 
is  only  a  section  of  one  sub-commune,  with  5,539  in- 
habitants, of  which  only  3,871  are  Slavs." 

^'  The  National  Council  of  Fiume,"  say  the  Jugo 
Slavs,  "  is  a  self-constituted  Italian  committee  in  op- 
position to  the  provisional  Jugo  Slav  government  of 
Fiume." 

"  The  National  Council  has  been  recognized  by  the 
Peace  Conference,"  reply  the  Italians,  "  and  the  for- 
mer deputy,  Ossoinach,  has  been  received  in  the  ca- 
pacity of  its  representative  by  President  Wilson.  The 
provisional  Jugo  Slav  government  for  the  city  has  never 
existed." 

As  controversial  statements  of  this  character  have 
been  repeated  manifold  in  the  course  of  the  Peace  Con- 
ference, the  presence  of  gray  hairs  among  the  delegates 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at. 

President  Wilson  came  to  Paris  hoping  for  an  hon- 
est application  of  the  principles  contained  within  the 
Fourteen  Points  to  the  problems  of  the  Adriatic.  lie 
was  in  s}Tnpathy  with  the  return  of  the  unredeemed 
provinces  to  Italy.  He  found  the  Italian  claims  in  the 
Trentino  just  and  logical.  He  felt  that  the  safety  of 
Italy  should  not  be  jeopardized  by  allowing  a  rival  naval 


THE  rOURTEEJSr  POINTS  149 

power  to  grow  up  in  the  Adriatic.  He  wanted  to  apply 
his  principle  of  self-determination  of  nationalities. 
But  he  was  opposed  to  shutting  off  a  growing,  indus- 
trious people  from  the  sea  simply  because  the  coast- 
line was  dotted  with  settlements  having  largely  another 
national  character  from  that  of  the  great  hinterland 
which  had  to  use  that  coast-line.  It  was,  truly,  a  ques- 
tion of  national  self-determination,  but  it  was  also  a 
question  of  economic  justice. 

President  Wilson  faced  for  the  first  time  the  fact 
that  a  hard-and-fast  rule  cannot  always  be  applied  with 
justice  to  all  men.  He  had  to  decide  between  the  hinter- 
land and  the  coast-line.  He  saw  the  finest  ports  of  the 
Adriatic  fall  into  the  possession  of  Italy.  He  was  will- 
ing that  Triest  and  Pola  should  become  Italian,  and  he 
made  no  objection  to  the  Italian  naval  base  at  Avlona, 
a  position  of  strategic  importance  to  Italy.  He  felt 
also  that  the  islands  of  the  Adriatic  should  not  be  al- 
lowed to  harbor  fleets  or  armaments  which  might  be- 
come hostile  to  Italy;  but  when  it  came  to  the  great 
Slav  territories,  such  as  Dalmatia,  eastern  Istria,  and 
the  islands  inhabited  for  the  most  part  by  Slavs,  he 
thought  that  here  Italy,  by  the  very  fact  that  she  made 
her  plea  on  the  basis  of  nationality,  should  not  exercise 
the  rights  of  sovereignty. 

The  President  had  his  first  conversation  with  Signer 
Orlando  in  Paris  on  January  9,  1919.  President  Wil- 
son outlined  his  idea  of  how  far  the  Italian  boundaries 
should  go.  He  drew  a  line  through  the  Istrian  penin- 
sula, giving  the  Fiume-San  Pietro-Laibach  railway  to 
the  Jugo  Slavs.     He  felt  that  giving  Fiume  as  well  as 


150  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Triest  to  Italy  would  give  Italy  a  monopoly  of  the  up- 
per Adriatic.  Hence,  though  he  recognized  the  claim 
of  nationality  in  Eiume,  he  felt  that  this  should  be 
subordinated  to  economic  needs  and  given  to  the  Jugo 
Slavs.  Signor  Orlando  refused  to  consider  these  bound- 
aries. He  said  that  if  the  Jugo  Slavs  gained  eastern 
Istria,  they  would  seek  to  extend  their  boundaries  be- 
yond Triest  and  Pola  as  well.  The  line  drawn  by 
President  Wilson  brought  Pola  within  gun-range. 

A  second  conversation,  without  result,  took  place  on 
February  26  between  the  President  and  Signor  Or- 
lando. On  the  same  day  it  became  known  that  Dr. 
Ante  Trumbitch,  foreign  minister  for  the  Kingdom  of 
the  Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes,  had  asked  President 
Wilson  to  arbitrate  the  dispute  between  Italy  and  the 
Jugo  Slavs.  The  request  was  read  before  the  confer- 
ence at  the  instance  of  Dr.  Trumbitch  by  M.  Clemen- 
ceau  on  February  11,  and  was  as  follows: 

Mr.  President: 

The  delegation  of  the  kingdom  of  Serbs,  Croats  and  Slovenes 
at  the  Peace  Conference  has  the  honor  to  communicate  to  your 
excellency  that,  having  full  faith  in  the  spirit  of  justice  of  Wood- 
row  Wilson,  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
being  fully  authorized  to  this  end  by  the  royal  government,  it  is 
ready  to  submit  to  the  arbitration  of  President  Wilson  the  ter- 
ritorial controversy  between  the  Serb-Croat-Slovene  Kingdom 
and  the  Kingdom  of  Italy.  It  prays  your  Excellency  to  take 
cognizance  of  this  fact  and  communicate  same  to  the  Conference. 
A  similar  communication  has  been  made  to  His  Excellency  the 
President  of  the  United  States. 

Pachitch 

Trumbitch 

Vesnitch 

ZOLOOB 


THE  rOUKTEEI^  POINTS  151 

Baron  Sonnino  made  the  following  statement  on  be- 
half of  the  Italian  delegation : 

Following  the  communication  made  to  us  by  our  president  I 
consider  it  my  duty  to  declare  that  the  Italian  Government  is 
sorry  to  be  absolutely  unable  to  accept  any  proposal  for  arbitra- 
tion on  questions  for  the  settlement  of  which  Italy,  in  full  agree- 
ment with  her  allies,  has  for  three  and  a  half  years  sustained  a 
hard  war  and  which  have  been  actually  submitted  to  the  Confer- 
ence for  examination. 

President  Wilson  politely  refused  to  accept  the  office 
of  arbiter.  The  action  of  the  Jugo  Slavs  produced  an 
excellent  impression,  although  President  Wilson  should 
not  have  been  suggested  by  them,  as  his  views  were  al- 
ready known.  Italy's  refusal  to  arbitrate  cannot 
properly  be  censured,  for  it  was  the  Peace  Conference, 
and  not  any  one  person,  that  should  settle  the  dispute, 
as  it  was  settling  others. 

A  statement  by  Secretary  Lansing  to  Dr.  Trumbitch 
on  the  interest  of  the  United  States  in  the  Kingdom  of 
the  Jugo  Slavs  was  made  public  on  February  8.  It 
caused  considerable  comment,  because  it  was  evidently 
a  manifestation  of  American  friendship  and  sympathy 
for  the  Jugo  Slavs,  and  coming  at  this  time  it  seemed  to 
emphasize  this  fact  as  against  the  Italian  point  of  view. 
The  statement  was  regarded  in  many  quarters  as  offi- 
cial recognition  by  the  United  States  of  the  Kingdom  of 
the  Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes.     It  read : 

On  May  29,  1918,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  ex- 
pressed its  sympathy  for  the  national  aspirations  of  the  Jugo 
Slav  races  and  on  June  28  declared  that  all  branches  of  the  Slavs 
should  be  completely  freed  from  German  and  Austrian  rule. 
After  having  achieved  their  freedom  from  foreign  oppression, 
the  Jugo  Slavs  formerly  under  Austro-Hungarian  rule  have,  on 


152  THE  ADVENTUEES  OF 

various  occasions,  expressed  the  desire  to  unite  with  the  kingdom 
of  Serbia.  The  Serbian  Government,  on  its  part,  has  publicly 
and  officially  accepted  the  union  with  the  Serb-Croat-Slovene 
peoples. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  therefore  welcomes  this 
union,  while  recognizing  that  the  final  settlement  of  territorial 
frontiers  must  be  left  to  the  Peace  Conference  for  determination 
according  to  the  desires  of  the  peoples  concerned. 

Ostensibly  this  "  recognition "  did  not  settle  the 
vexed  question  of  whether  Serbia  had  swallowed  Mont- 
enegro willy-nilly,  or  whether  Montenegro  was  still  to 
have  another  opportunity  to  express  its  desire  for  inde- 
pendence or  annexation  to  Serbia,  ^or  did  this  throw 
any  light  on  the  dispute  with  Italy  over  frontiers. 

President  Wilson  made  his  first  trip  to  the  United 
States  and  returned  without  a  settlement  having  been 
reached.  On  April  3  the  subject  was  taken  up  again 
by  the  conference,  and  the  President  supported  his  plan 
of  having  Fiume  made  a  free  city  under  the  League  of 
Nations.  He  was  willing  to  give  Lissa  to  Italy  for 
strategic  reasons,  but  did  not  favor  letting  Italy  have 
sovereignty  over  the  great  numbers  of  Slavs  of  Dal- 
matia,  although  he  wished  certain  guaranties  of  au- 
tonomous rights  to  be  given  communities  that  were  pre- 
ponderatingly  Italian.  As  the  discussions  now  con- 
tinued, they  became  more  and  more  provocative  of 
heated  debates  in  unofficial  circles.  President  Wilson 
consulted  his  experts  on  the  subject  of  the  situation  in 
the  Jugo  Slav  territories,  and  these  are  supposed  to 
have  given  him  information  that  confirmed  his  point  of 
view.  The  Italians  began  to  see  more  and  more  that 
the  President  would  remain  firm  in  his  determination 
not  to  give  Eiume  to  Italy.     It  was  also  reported  that 


THE  rOURTEE:N"  POINTS  153 

Mr.  Lloyd  George  was  ready  to  stand  by  the  secret 
treaty,  but  tbat  be  did  not  feel  called  upon  to  support 
tbe  wbole  set  of  Italian  claims,  witb  Eiume  in  addition 
to  tbe  treaty.  Tbe  advice  of  tbe  ^N'ortbcliffe  press,  un- 
der tbe  leadership  of  Mr.  Wickbam  Steed,  tbat  Italy 
should  renounce  Fiume  and  some  of  her  claims  in 
Dalmatia  caused  much  disapproval  and  a  great  deal 
of  caustic  criticism  in  Italy,  where  newspapers  declared 
tbat  English  shipping  concerns  were  vitally  interested 
in  the  port  of  Fiume  and  expected  to  enter  into  strong 
competition  for  tbe  trade  of  tbe  hinterland  with  the 
Italian  lines  running  from  Triest.  In  fact,  economic 
arguments  were  constantly  being  advanced  as  bearing 
on  the  settlement,  and  one  of  the  favorite  cries  of  tbe 
Jugo  Slavs  was  tbat  if  Italy  acquired  Fiume,  this  port 
would  be  allowed  to  dwindle  in  importance  for  the  bene- 
fit of  Triest. 

Tbe  issue  was  apparently  wholly  between  President 
Wilson  and  Signer  Orlando,  and  both  men  were  firmly 
set  in  their  points  of  view.  Tbe  situation  became  more 
and  more  awkward.  Outside  the  Peace  Conference  cir- 
cle tbe  Jugo  Slavs  and  the  Italians  indulged  in  a  most 
disturbing  game  of  burling  charges  and  counter-charges 
against  each  other.  From  tbe  propaganda  bureau  of 
tbe  Jugo  Slavs  at  17  Rue  Cadet,  far  from  tbe  center 
of  Conference  activities,  issued  an  amazing  series  of 
reports,  declaring  tbat  the  Italian  occupying  troops  bad 
committed  serious  breaches  of  tbe  peace  in  purely  Jugo 
Slav  cities,  forbidding  national  demonstrations,  and 
getting  into  clashes  with  tbe  municipalities.  The 
Italians  issued  similar  reports,  alleging  outrages  against 


154  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

the  Italian  troops.  It  is  not  intended  here  to  sift  the 
truth  in  these  charges,  but  merely  to  indicate  the  state 
of  things  in  Paris.  In  the  midst  of  this  situation  it 
was  decided  that  the  Germans  should  be  invited  to  come 
to  Versailles.  The  Italian  delegation  opposed  this  no- 
tification on  the  ground  that  Italy's  claims  should  be 
settled  first.  Nevertheless,  President  Wilson  made  the 
announcement  that  the  Gennans  should  come  April  25. 
The  Council  of  Four  and  the  members  of  the  confer- 
ence fully  expected  a  solution  of  the  Italian  question 
before  that  time. 

But  matters  did  not  mend.  Conversations  continued, 
but  the  two  men  who  had  to  decide  the  issue  remained 
unmoved.  On  April  23  an  unofficial  statement  was  issued 
at  the  American  headquarters  in  the  Hotel  de  Crillon 
which  reviewed  the  American  point  of  view  in  the  con- 
troversy. It  explained  President  Wilson's  attitude  in 
the  light  of  the  Fourteen  Points.  The  point  which  said 
that  "  a  readjustment  of  the  frontiers  of  Italy  should 
be  effected  along  clearly  recognized  lines  of  nationality," 
covered  the  long-expressed  aspirations  of  the  Italian 
people,  and  should  be  considered  at  the  same  time  as 
wholly  consistent  with  the  two  other  generally  accepted 
principles  that  "  every  territorial  settlement  involved 
in  this  war  must  be  made  in  the  interest  and  for  the 
benefit  of  the  populations  concerned,  and  not  as  a  part 
of  any  mere  adjustment  or  compromise  of  claims  among 
rival  states,"  and  "  that  all  well-defined  national  as- 
pirations shall  be  accorded  the  utmost  satisfaction  that 
can  be  accorded  them,  without  introducing  new  or  per- 
petuating old  elements  of  discord  and  antagonism  that 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  155 

would  be  likely,  in  time,  to  break  the  peace  of  Europe 
and  consequently  of  the  world,"  and  finally  that  Serbia 
should  be  "  accorded  free  and  secure  access  to  the  sea." 
By  the  application  of  these  principles  Italy  gained  400,- 
000  Italians  in  southern  Tyrol  and  a  strategic  frontier 
along  the  Alps ;  Triest,  Monfalcone,  Gradisca,  Gorizia, 
Pola,  and  the  Isonzo  valley,  a  territory  with  300,000 
Jugo   Slavs, — "  only  slightly  less  numerous  than  the 
Italians," — but  whose  rights  had  to  be  subordinated 
to  those  of  the  Italians.     Fiume,  it  was  explained,  was 
a  small  city  surrounded  by  a  preponderant  Jugo  Slav 
population.     For  Italy  Fiume  had  almost  no  commer- 
cial significance  in  the  past,  as  in  1913  Italy  brought 
through  Fiume  only  1,000   out  of  1,300,000   tons   of 
imports,  and  exported  from  Fiume  less  than  2,000  tons 
out  of  the  city's  total  export  of  over  600,000  tons.     For 
the  Jugo   Slavs,   however,   it  was  a   different  matter. 
Blocked  by  mountains  is  the  great  plain  of  the  newer 
part  of  Jugo  Slavia,   the  home  of  8,000,000   people, 
whose  only  outlet  is  by  going  around  the  narrow  north- 
em  part  of  the  mountain-range  through  Fiume  to  the 
Adriatic.     Passage  through  the  mountains  themselves 
is  most  difficult,  for  they  broaden  as  they  go  south,  and 
communication  is  confined  to  narrow-gage  roads,  one 
having  130  tunnels  in  fewer  than  sixty  miles.     As  a 
Jugo-Slav  outlet,  Fiume  would  become  a  port  for  south 
central  Europe  as  a  companion  to  Triest.     As  for  the 
Dalmatian  coast-line,  America  was  willing  to  give  Italy 
naval  protection,  but  could  not  see  the  justice  of  forc- 
ing an  alien  population,  which  is  nearly  ninety-six  per 
cent.  Jugo  Slav,  under  another  flag. 


156  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Amplifying  this  statement  is  a  memorandum  which 
President  Wilson  gave  to  Signor  Orlando  on  April  14, 
with  permission  to  make  it  public  in  Italy.  It  is  too 
long  to  repeat  here,  but  the  essentials  are  these ;  Presi- 
dent Wilson  is  willing  to  give  Italy  all  that  the  treaty 
of  London  gives  with  regard  to  her  Alpine  frontiers,  but 
not  all  of  Istria  or  Eiume.  He  believes  Eiume  should 
be  an  international  port,  ^'  with  a  very  considerable 
degree  of  genuine  autonomy,"  but  included  in  the  cus- 
toms system  of  Jugo  Slavia.  He  also  agrees  to  the 
cession  of  Lissa,  the  retention  of  Avlona,  the  disman- 
tling of  the  forts  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Adriatic, 
and  the  stipulation  that  the  powers  along  that  coast 
shall  possess  only  minor  naval  forces  sufficient  for  police 
duty. 

Signor  Orlando  said  of  this  memorandum,  in  an  ad- 
dress before  the  Italian  Chamber  and  the  Senate  in 
Rome  on  April  28  : 

Inasmuch  as  that  memorandum  denied  Italy  any  right  over 
Dalmatia  and  the  isles,  accorded  but  an  incomplete  liberty  to 
Fiume,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  break  up  the  unity  of  Istria, 
I  could  not  hesitate,  and  I  told  Mr.  Wilson  that  it  was  absolutely 
impossible  for  me  to  agree  to  peace  on  the  conditions  indicated, 
which  gave  us  satisfaction  on  none  of  those  three  essential  points. 
I  added  that  in  such  conditions  the  delegation  could  not  continue 
conversations  which  were  devoid  of  any  acceptable  basis,  and 
that  I  reserved  to  myself  the  right,  before  taking  any  more  radi- 
cal decision,  to  place  myself  in  communication  with  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  allied  powers  to  which  Italy  was  bound  by  spe- 
cial relations. 

President  Wilson  very  warmly  expressed  his  regrets  at  this 
hypothesis,  adding  that  he  would  do  whatever  was  possible  to 
avert  it,  and  to  that  end  he  thought  it  would  be  opportune  and 
advantageous  for  the  two  allied  powers,  France  and  Great  Britain, 
to  set  to  work  to  seek  some  means  of  conciliation,  while,  for  his 
part,  he  would  have  the  questions  at  issue  examined  afresh  by  his 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  157 

experts  to  see  if,  and  what,  further  concessions  could  be  made  :o 
Italian  aspirations. 

On  the  afternoon  of  April  23  President  Wilson  pub- 
lished a  statement  on  the  Italian  claims  which  was  re- 
garded as  an  appeal  to  the  Italian  people  over  the  heads 
of  their  delegation  and  their  Government.  The  Presi- 
dent had  spoken  of  making  such  a  declaration  several 
days  before,  but  when  it  came,  it  descended  upon  the 
conference  like  a  thunderbolt.  Eor  the  moment  all 
other  issues  were  forgotten.  So  sharp  was  the  reaction 
of  the  Italian  delegation  that  it  looked  as  if  the  break-up 
of  the  conference  were  at  hand. 

In  the  history  of  the  Peace  Conference  this  appeal 
will  always  stand  out  as  marking  a  turning-point  in 
diplomatic  procedure.  It  will  become  one  of  the  great 
papers  of  the  conference ;  it  will  be  consulted  again  and 
again  not  alone  for  its  content,  but  for  the  moment  that 
gave  it  birth  and  for  the  influence  that  it  subsequently 
had  upon  the  whole  subject  of  Italian  expansion  on  the 
east  coast  of  the  Adriatic.  I  therefore  give  the  docu- 
ment in  full : 

In  view  of  the  capital  importance  of  the  questions  affected,  and 
in  order  to  throw  all  possible  light  upon  what  is  involved  in 
their  settlement,  I  hope  that  the  following  statement  will  con- 
tribute to  the  final  formation  of  opinion  and  to  a  satisfactory 
solution. 

When  Italy  entered  the  war,  she  entered  upon  the  basis  of  d. 
definite,  but  private,  understanding  with  Great  Britain  and 
France,  now  known  as  the  pact  of  London.  Since  that  time  the 
whole  face  of  circumstances  has  been  altered.  Many  other 
powers,  great  and  small,  have  entered  the  struggle  with  no  knowl- 
edge of  that  private  understanding.  The  Austro-Hungarian  em- 
pire, then  the  enemy  of  Europe,  and  at  whose  expense  the  pact 
of  London  was  to  be  kept  in  the  event  of  victory,  has  gone  to 


158  THE  ADVEI^TUKES  OF 

pieces  and  no  longer  exists.  Not  only  that.  The  several  parts  of 
the  empire,  it  is  now  agreed  by  Italy  and  all  her  associates,  are 
to  be  erected  into  independent  states  and  associated  in  a  League 
of  Nations,  not  with  those  who  were  recently  our  enemies,  but 
with  Italy  herself  and  the  powers  that  stood  with  Italy  in  the 
great  war  for  liberty.  We  are  to  establish  their  liberty  as  well 
as  our  own.  They  are  to  be  among  the  smaller  states  whose  in- 
terests are  henceforth  to  be  as  scrupulously  safe-guarded  as  the 
interests  of  the  most  powerful  states. 

The  war  was  ended,  moreover,  by  proposing  to  Germany  an 
armistice  and  peace  which  should  be  founded  on  certain  clearly 
defined  principles  which  would  set  up  a  new  order  of  right  and 
justice. 

Upon  those  principles  the  peace  with  Germany  has  been  not 
only  conceived  but  formulated.  Upon  those  principles  it  will  be 
executed.  We  cannot  ask  the  great  body  of  powers  to  propose  and 
effect  peace  with  Austria  and  establish  a  new  basis  of  independ- 
ence and  right  in  the  states  which  originally  constituted  the  Aus- 
tro-Hungarian  empire,  and  in  the  states  of  the  Balkan  group,  on 
principles  of  another  kind.  We  must  apply  the  same  principles 
to  the  settlement  of  Europe  in  these  quarters  that  we  have  ap- 
plied in  the  peace  with  Germany.  It  was  upon  the  explicit  avowal 
of  these  principles  that  the  initiative  for  peace  was  taken.  It 
is  upon  them  that  the  whole  structure  of  peace  must  rest. 

If  those  principles  are  to  be  adhered  to,  Fiume  must  serve  as 
the  outlet  and  inlet  of  the  commerce,  not  of  Italy,  but  of  the 
lands  to  the  north  and  northeast  of  that  port  —  Hungary,  Bo- 
hemia, Rumania  and  the  states  of  the  new  Jugo  Slavic  group. 
To  assign  Fiume  to  Italy  would  be  to  create  the  feeling  that  we 
had  deliberately  put  the  port  upon  which  all  these  countries 
chiefly  depend  for  their  access  to  the  Mediterranean  in  the  hands 
of  a  power  of  which  it  did  not  form  an  integral  part,  and  whose 
sovereignty,  if  set  up  there,  must  inevitably  seem  foreign,  not 
domestic,  nor  identified  with  the  commercial  and  industrial  life 
of  the  region  which  the  port  must  serve. 

It  is  for  that  reason,  no  doubt,  that  Fiume  was  not  included 
In  the  pact  of  London,  but  was  there  definitely  assigned  to  the 
Croatians. 

And  the  reason  why  the  lines  of  the  pact  of  London  swept 
about  many  of  the  islands  of  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Adriatic 
and  around  the  portion  of  the  Dalmatian  coast  which  lies  most 
open  to  that  sea  was  not  only  that  here  and  there  on  those  islands, 
and  here  and  there  on  that  coast,  there  are  bodies  of  people  of 
Italian  blood  and  connexion,  but  also,  and  no  doubt  chiefly,  be- 
cause it  was  felt  that  it  was  necessary  for  Italy  to  have  a  foot- 


THE  rOUETEEN  POINTS  159 

hold  amidst  the  channels  of  the  eastern  Adriatic,  in  order  that 
she  might  make  her  own  coasts  safe  against  the  naval  aggression 
of  Austria-Hungary. 

But  Austria-Hungary  no  longer  exists.  It  is  proposed  that 
the  fortifications  which  the  Austrian  government  constructed 
there  shall  be  razed  and  permanently  destroyed.  It  is  part,  also, 
of  the  new  plan  of  European  order  which  centers  in  the  League 
of  Nations,  that  the  new  states  erected  there  shall  accept  a  limi- 
tation of  armaments  which  puts  aggression  out  of  the  question. 
There  can  be  no  fear  of  the  unfair  treatment  of  groups  of  Italian 
people  there,  because  adequate  guarantees  will  be  given,  under 
international  sanction,  of  the  equal  and  equitable  treatment  of  all 
racial  and  national  minorities. 

In  brief,  every  question  associated  with  this  settlement  wears 
a  new  aspect  —  a  new  aspect  given  it  by  the  very  victory  for 
right,  for  which  Italy  has  made  the  supreme  sacrifice  of  blood 
and  treasure.  Italy,  along  with  the  four  other  great  powers,  has 
become  one  of  the  chief  trustees  of  the  new  order  which  she  has 
played  so  honorable  a  part  in  establishing. 

And  on  the  north  and  northeast  her  natural  frontiers  are  com- 
pletely restored,  along  the  whole  sweep  of  the  Alps  from  north- 
west to  southeast,  to  the  very  end  of  the  Istrian  peninsula,  includ- 
ing all  the  great  watershed  within  which  Trieste  and  Pola  lie,  and 
all  the  fair  regions  whose  face  nature  has  turned  toward  the 
great  peninsula  on  which  the  historic  life  of  the  Latin  people 
has  been  worked  out  through  centuries  of  famous  story,  ever 
since  Rome  was  first  set  upon  her  seven  hills.  The  ancient  unity 
is  restored.  Her  lines  are  extended  to  the  great  walls  which  are 
her  natural  defense.  It  is  within  her  choice  to  be  surrounded 
by  friends;  to  exhibit  to  the  newly  liberated  peoples  across  the 
Adriatic  that  noblest  quality  of  greatness,  magnanimity,  friendly 
generosity,  the  preference  of  justice  over  interest. 

The  nations  associated  with  her,  the  nations  that  know  noth- 
ing of  the  pact  of  London  or  of  any  other  special  understanding 
that  lies  at  the  beginning  of  this  great  struggle,  and  who  have 
made  their  supreme  sacrifice  also  in  the  interest,  not  of  national 
advantage  or  defense,  but  of  the  settled  peace  of  the  world,  now 
unite  with  her  older  associates  in  urging  her  to  assume  a  leader- 
ship which  cannot  be  mistaken  in  the  new  order  of  Europe. 
America  is  Italy's  friend.  Her  people  are  drawn,  millions  strong, 
from  Italy's  own  fair  country  sides.  She  is  linked  in  blood  as 
well  as  in  affection  with  the  Italian  people. 

Such  ties  can  never  be  broken,  and  America  was  privileged,  by 
the  generous  commission  of  her  associates  in  the  war,  to  initiate 
the  peace  we  are  about  to  consummate,  to  initiate  it  upon  terms 


160  THE  adve:n^tures  oe 

she  had  herself  formulated  and  in  which  I  was  her  spokesman. 
The  compulsion  is  upon  her  to  square  every  decision  she  takes  a 
part  in  with  those  principles.  She  can  do  nothing  else.  She 
trusts  Italy,  and  in  her  trust  believes  that  Italy  will  ask  noth- 
ing of  her  that  cannot  be  made  unmistakably  consistent  with 
those  sacred  obligations.  Interest  is  not  now  in  question,  but  the 
rights  of  peoples;  of  states  new  and  old,  of  liberated  peoples,  and 
peoples  whose  rulers  have  never  accounted  them  worthy  of 
rights;  above  all,  the  right  of  the  world  to  peace  and  such  set- 
tlements of  interest  as  shall  make  peace  secure. 

These,  and  these  only,  are  the  principles  for  which  America  has 
fought.  These  and  these  only  are  the  principles  upon  which  she 
can  consent  to  make  peace.  Only  on  these  principles,  she  hopes 
and  believes,  will  the  people  of  Italy  ask  her  to  make  peace. 

At  the  moment  when  President  Wilson  released  his 
statement  on  the  situation  the  negotiations  with  Italy 
in  the  Council  of  Eour  had  reached  a  critical  stage. 
According  to  the  story  told  at  the  Italian  headquarters 
the  secretary  to  Mr.  Lloyd  George  arrived  there  at  3 
o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  April  23.  with  the  reply  of 
President  Wilson,  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  and  M.  Clemen- 
ceau  to  Italy's  demands.  This  was  handed  to  the 
Prince  of  Scordia,  who  conveyed  it  to  Count  Aldo- 
brandini,  secretary  to  Signer  Sonnino.  The  count 
found  that  the  reply  dealt  with  all  questions  osten- 
sibly to  the  satisfaction  of  Italy,  but  did  not  explain 
the  status  of  Eiume.  Lie  thereupon  asked  the  secre- 
tary what  the  three  proposed  for  Eiume.  He  replied 
that  he  had  no  information  on  that  point. 

The  count  thereupon  telephoned  the  houses  of  Presi- 
dent Wilson  and  Mr.  Lloyd  George  to  demand  whether 
these  men  would  receive  the  ambassadors  of  Italy  in 
order  to  clear  this  matter  up.  President  Wilson  being 
occupied  for  the  moment,  the  Marquis  Imperiali,  Italy's 
ambassador  to  London,  went  immediately  to  the  home  of 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  161 

Mr.  Lloyd  George.  To  his  question  of  what  would  be 
the  status  of  Fiume,  Mr.  Lloyd  George  answered : 

"  A  free  city,  outside  of  all  control."  He  added  that 
he  would  be  pleased  to  receive  the  Italian  reply  that 
evening. 

The  Marquis  Imperiali  returned  to  the  Italian  head- 
quarters and  found  the  members  of  the  delegation  read- 
ing the  statement  of  President  Wilson,  which  had  just 
been  published  in  an  extra  edition  of  '^  Le  Temps."  A 
meeting  was  hastily  held,  at  which  a  letter  to  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  and  M.  Clemenceau  was  drafted  by  Signer  Or- 
lando, in  which  he  said : 


The  Italian  delegation  finds  it  impossible  to  continue  to  par- 
ticipate usefully  in  the  work  of  the  Peace  Conference.  The  dele- 
gation regrets  that  President  Wilson  intervened  at  a  moment 
when  the  Italian  representatives  were  making  a  supreme  effort  on 
behalf  of  conciliation,  which  by  this  very  act  he  rendered  impos- 
sible. 


Signor  Orlando  further  praised  the  loyalty  with 
which  Great  Britain  and  Prance  adhered  to  their  prom- 
ises embodied  in  the  treaty  of  London,  and  declared 
that  the  sole  responsibility  for  the  decision  which  had 
been  forced  upon  the  Italian  delegation  —  that  of  leav- 
ing Paris  —  rested  upon  President  Wilson  alone,  and 
that  the  American  people  could  not  be  made  to  share 
in  it. 

Crowds  gathered  in  front  of  the  entrance  to  the  Hotel 
Edouard  Sept  and  called  for  Prime  Minister  Orlando. 
There  were  cheers  for  Italy  and  Prance.  The  crowd 
was  dignified  and  well  behaved.  A  little  later  the  dele- 
gation published  the  following  note : 


162  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

As  a  result  of  the  declaration  by  President  Wilson  on  the  Adri- 
atic question,  the  Italian  delegates  have  decided  to  leave  Paris 
to-morrow. 

The  note  produced  a  sensation  and  added  fuel  to  the 
excitement.  It  was  felt  that  the  conference  had  reached 
a  turning-point.  Xo  one  knew  whither  the  day's  de- 
velopments would  lead.  President  Wilson's  methods 
stunned  and  shocked.  The  conservative  elements  ral- 
lied to  cover  against  this  disastrous  '^  new  diplomacy." 
Among  the  practised  European  diplomats  sympathy 
seemed  to  be  pretty  general  for  Italy.  President  Wil- 
son again  stood  out  alone,  a  solitary  figure. 

In  French  and  British  circles  it  was  pointed  out  that 
each  had  labored  diligently  to  bring  about  an  accord. 
The  lack  of  harmony,  it  was  pointed  out,  was  entirely 
between  Signer  Orlando  and  the  American  President. 
For  four  days  the  representatives  of  the  French  Repub- 
lic had  toiled  far  into  the  night  at  the  work  of  finding 
a  solution.  They  had  sought  to  delay  the  publication 
of  President  Wilson's  statement,  asserted  ^'  Le  Temps." 
This  they  had  done  in  a  spirit  of  faithfulness  to  their 
convictions.  M.  Clemenceau  had  agitated  for  an  al- 
liance with  Italy  in  1880,  and  M.  Pichon  had  been  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  Comite  Franco-Italie,  at  a  time 
when  war  between  these  two  countries  and  Great  Britain 
appeared  imminent.  These  were  old  ties.  The  Brit- 
ish, on  the  other  hand,  were  also  not  slow  to  assert  that 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  had  done  everything  in  his  power 
to  avert  a  rupture.  In  fact,  he  had  almost  brought  about 
a  solution.  On  April  24  Mr.  Lloyd  George  asked  Sig- 
ner Orlando  to  breakfast  with  him  at  the  Rue  Nitot, 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  163 

but  the  Italian  premier  was  unable  to  accept.  Mr. 
Lloyd  George  then  went  to  the  Hotel  Edouard  Sept  and 
had  a  long  talk  with  Signor  Orlando.  The  latter  had 
arranged  to  depart  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  but 
Mr.  Llovd  George  counseled  delay,  in  the  hope  of  find- 
ing a  solution  for  the  crisis.  Signor  Orlando  waited 
until  eight  o'clock,  but  refused  to  put  off  his  trip  to 
Eome.  Thus  the  honor  of  the  European  cabinets  was 
preserved  from  contamination  by  the  upstart  from  the 
West. 

On  April  24  the  following  note  was  issued  by  Renter 
and  credited  to  the  British  delegation: 

Great  Britain  has  advised  Italy  to  renounce  for  its  own  in- 
terests certain  of  its  claims.  However,  if  the  Italians  insist  on 
obtaining  the  rights  given  them  by  the  treaty  of  London  of  April 
26,  1915,  France  and  Great  Britain  will  honor  their  signatures. 

"  They  point  out  that  the  treaty  of  London  gives  Fiurae  to  the 
Croats  and  that  if  the  treaty  is  put  in  force,  the  article  relative 
to  Fiume  will  be  likewise. 

"  MM.  Clemenceau  and  Lloyd  George  endeavor  to  arrive  at  an 
agreement. 

"  Mr.  Wilson  published  his  declaration  upon  his  own  responsi- 
bility." 

When  the  newspapers  arrived  it  was  found  that  reams 
upon  reams  of  white  paper  had  been  used  to  heap  abuse 
and  criticism  upon  the  head  of  the  man  who  had  dared 
use  this  "  innovation  "  in  a  political  controversy.  Italy 
responded  almost  with  one  voice  in  utter  condemnation 
of  the  man  who  had  been  feted  and  acclaimed  there  but 
four  short  months  ago.  The  conservative  press  of 
France  politely  stated  its  amazement  —  and  regret. 
Many  of  the  newspapers  of  England  declared  that  the 
President  had  gone  too  far.     The  administration  organs 


164  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

invented  alibis  for  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  and  only  a  few 
newspapers  spoke  without  heat.  The  issue  was  lost 
sight  of  in  an  attack  on  the  statesman  who  had  come 
from  America  to  ^'  dictate  "  to  the  old  world. 

The  news  was  spread  broadcast  that  the  departure  of 
the  Italian  delegation  meant  that  Italy  would  withdraw 
from  the  Conference  and  make  a  separate  peace.  The 
report  was  not  true,  nor  based  on  anything  more  than  a 
conjecture.  Signor  Orlando  merely  contemplated  mak- 
ing a  trip  to  Rome  to  get  a  vote  of  confidence  from  the 
Italian  people,  and  although  the  delegates  of  Italy 
might  be  absent  for  an  indefinite  length  of  time,  there 
was  no  question  of  Italy's  leaving  the  Conference. 

But  by  far  the  most  important  development  of  the 
twenty-fourth  was  Signor  Orlando's  statement  in  reply 
to  the  President.  He  deprecated  the  fact  that  the  Presi- 
dent's appeal  had  been  addressed  to  the  people  rather 
than  to  the  Government,  a  procedure  which,  he  said,  had 
been  followed  heretofore  only  in  the  case  of  the  hostile 
governments.  But,  he  continued,  he  would  not  com- 
plain of  that ;  in  his  turn  he  would  follow  the  example 
of  the  President,  and  address  the  people.  To  draw  a 
distinction  between  the  Italian  Government  and  the 
Italian  people,  which  might  imply  that  a  free  people  was 
capable  of  submitting  to  the  yoke  of  a  will  that  was  not 
its  own,  was,  he  said,  a  supposition  that  would  be  un- 
justifiably offensive  to  his  country.  He  did  not  agree 
that  the  contentions  of  Italy  violated  the  principles  of 
President  Wilson,  but  he  had  not  been  able  to  convince 
the  President  of  this.  He  must  regard  the  way  in 
which  President  Wilson  applied  his  principles  to  the 


THE  rOUHTEEIil'  POINTS  165 

Italian  claims  as  altogether  unjustifiable.  The  asser- 
tion that  the  collapse  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Empire 
involved  a  reduction  of  Italy's  aspirations  ^'  will  not  be 
received  without  reserve.''     He  continued: 

The  presidential  message  affirms  that  with  the  concessions 
which  it  mentions  Italy  would  be  extended  to  the  walls  of  the 
Alps,  which  are  her  natural  defense.  This  recognition  is  of  great 
importance,  provided  the  left  flank  of  that  wall  is  not  left  open 
and  that  Monte  Nevoso,  which  divides  the  waters  flowing  to- 
wards the  Black  Sea  from  those  falling  into  the  Mediterranean,  is 
included  in  Italy's  right  to  such  a  line.  This  is  the  mountain 
that  the  Latins  themselves  always  called  Limes  Italicus  from  the 
time  when  the  true  configuration  of  Italy  was  realized  in  the 
sentiment  and  the  conscience  of  the  people.  Without  that  pro- 
tection a  dangerous  breach  would  remain  yawning  in  that  ad- 
mirable natural  barrier,  the  Alps,  and  it  would  mean  the  break- 
ing off'  of  that  unquestionable  political,  historical  and  economic 
unity  which  the  peninsula  of  Istria  forms. 

And  I  further  think  that  he  who  can  proudly  claim  to  have 
proclaimed  to  the  world  the  free  right  of  peoples  to  self-de- 
termination is  the  very  one  who  is  bound  to  recognize  that  right 
in  the  case  of  Fiume,  an  ancient  Italian  city,  which  proclaimed 
its  Italian  affinity  before  the  Italian  ships  were  anywhere  near  it 
—  an  excellent  example  of  national  consciousness  retained  for  cen- 
turies. To  deny  that  right  simply  for  the  reason  that  it  is  a  cause 
of  a  small  community  would  be  to  admit  that  the  criterion  of  jus- 
tice to  diff'erent  peoples  varies  according  to  their  territorial  ex- 
tent; and  if  the  denial  of  this  right  is  to  be  based  on  the  inter- 
national character  of  the  port,  have  we  not  the  cases  of  Antwerp, 
Genoa,  Rotterdam,  international  ports  serving  as  outlets  for  the 
most  diverse  peoples  and  regions,  without  their  having  to  pay 
dearly  for  this  privilege  by  the  stifling  of  their  national  con- 
science? 

And  can  one  describe  as  excessive  Italy's  aspiration  toward  the 
coast  of  Dalmatia,  that  bulwark  of  Italy  which  throughout  the 
centuries  which  Roman  genius  and  Venetian  activity  made  noble 
and  great,  and  whose  Italianism,  defying  for  a  whole  century  all 
sorts  of  implacable  persecutions,  to-day  shares  the  same  tremors 
of  patriotism  as  the  Italian  people?  With  regard  to  Poland  the 
principle  is  proclaimed  that  rights  cannot  be  created  by  dena- 
tionalization secured  by  violence  and  arbitrariness.  Why  not  ap- 
ply the  same  principles  to  Dalmatia? 


166  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

I  have  quoted  the  essential  arguments  in  Signer  Or- 
lando's statement,  omitting  his  story  of  the  cooperation 
of  the  Italian  people  in  the  war  and  in  the  conference, 
and  the  declaration  of  warm  sympathy  and  admiration 
for  the  American  people  with  which  he  closed.  He  de- 
parted that  evening,  after  he  had  attended  a  meeting  of 
the  Council  of  Four,  at  which  President  Wilson  talked 
with  him  at  some  length  on  the  subject  of  his  declara- 
tion. Signor  Orlando  is  quoted  as  saying  that  he  in- 
formed the  President  that  the  matter  had  reached  a 
point  at  which  even  the  acceptance  by  the  council  of 
the  demands  of  Italy  could  not  be  allowed  to  delay  his 
immediate  reference  of  the  controversy  to  the  Italian 
people.  Baron  Sonnino  left  the  following  morning  with 
Signor  Salandra,  and  M.  Pichon  was  present  at  the  gare 
to  do  the  honors  for  France.  A  large  crowd  had  gath- 
ered, and  the  principal  Italian  representatives  in  Paris 
joined  in  the  demonstration. 

Let  us  follow  Signor  Orlando  to  Rome  and  witness 
the  remarkable  enthusiasm  with  which  the  Italian  peo- 
ple responded  to  the  coming  of  their  representative. 
Heretofore  the  premier  had  slipped  quietly,  unostenta- 
tiously into  the  city,  preferring  to  avoid  crowds.  Now 
he  went  openly,  because  he  meant  to  learn  the  opinion 
of  all  Italy.  And  all  Italy,  apparently,  was  with  him. 
Enthusiastic  thousands  acclaimed  him  at  Modane, 
Turin,  x\sti,  Alessandria,  and  Genoa.  On  the  morning 
of  April  26  he  arrived  in  Rome.  Press  despatches  de- 
scribe the  event  as  rivaling  all  other  welcomes  in  its  in- 
tensity. Unnumbered  thousands  awaited  the  premier 
on  the  wide  piazza  bounded  by  the  railway  station,  the 


THE  FOURTEEN"  POINTS  167 

baths  of  Diocletian,  and  the  Hotel  Continental.  Many 
persons  were  perched  precariously  on  the  ruins  of  the 
ancient  baths  and  on  roofs  of  houses,  just  as  they  had 
been  when  President  Wilson  arrived  four  months  be- 
fore. For  ten  minutes  the  crowd  cheered,  and  then 
Signor  Orlando  addressed  them. 

''  Have  the  Italian  Government  and  the  Italian  dele- 
gation in  Paris,  in  acting  as  they  have  acted,  repre- 
sented faithfully  and  with  dignity  the  aspirations  and 
will  of  the  Italian  people  ?  "  shouted  the  prime  minister. 

"  Yes !     Yes !  "  came  a  hoarse  roar  from  all  sides. 

"  I  do  not  doubt  your  sentiments/'  said  the  premier, 
'•'  but  I  wanted  a  confirmation.  Here  is  the  confirma- 
tion!" 

With  a  gesture  he  indicated  all  the  thousands  gath- 
ered on  the  piazza.  It  was  well  that  he  could  not  see 
two  months  into  the  future  and  behold  himself  the 
object  of  a  biting  interpellation. 

Then  came  a  manifestation  which  showed  that  this 
was  a  personal  attack  on  the  President,  and  not  upon 
the  American  people.  "  Long  live  America !  "  cried 
the  crowds.     "  Down  with  President  Wilson ! '' 

Signor  Orlando  then  made  a  statement  that  was  not 
worthy  of  him,  not  worthy  of  a  man  who  had  conducted 
his  high  office  with  dignity  and  uniform  courtliness 
throughout  these  trying  times. 

"  We  must  show  that  we  have  taken  the  worst  into 
consideration,"  he  said.  ^^  After  four  years  of  un- 
speakable privations  and  sacrifices  we  may  find  our- 
selves faced  with  fresh  sacrifices  and  privations.  At 
this  moment  Italy  is  ready  and  greater  than  ever  — 


168  THE  ADVENTURES  OE 

greater  than  in  May,  1915.  The  decision  must  be  a 
well-considered  one.  Eood  supplies  are  failing  us,  but 
Italy,  which  has  known  hunger,  has  never  known  dis- 
honor. I  do  not  conceal  from  you  the  danger  of  this 
very  critical  hour  and  I  am  with  you,  a  brother  among 
brothers,  and  also  a  chief  who  asks  to  obey  and  follow 
the  will  of  the  people.  It  may  be  that  we  shall  find 
ourselves  alone,  but  Italy  must  be  united  and  have  a 
single  will.     Italy  will  not  perish." 

This  statement  shows  the  lengths  to  which  the  heat 
of  the  controversy  had  driven  even  so  ^elf-possessed  a 
man  as  the  Italian  prime  minister.  Eor  his  sugges- 
tion that  Italy  might  know  yet  great  sacrifices  and 
privations  seemed  to  recall  reports  circulated  in  Paris 
that  the  American  Government  might  curtail  its  food 
supplies  to  Italy  —  reports  reprinted  in  newspapers  like 
the  "  Morning  Post  "  of  London,  which  said : 

Moreover,  rightly  or  wrongly,  many  Frenchmen  believe  that  Mr. 
Wilson,  like  so  many  other  idealists,  is  not  afraid  of  using  the 
big  stick.  Behind  the  somewhat  florid  compliments  to  Italy 
there  lies  a  threat,  and  it  is  felt  here  that  the  gentleman  who 
may  have  the  honor  of  translating  that  threat  into  action  may  be 
the  ubiquitous  Mr.  Hoover. 

The  demonstrations  in  Rome  continued  for  several 
days.  General  Diaz,  Signor  Barzilai,  and  Prince 
Colonna,  the  mayor  of  Rome,  all  addressed  the  throngs. 
On  the  day  that  Signor  Orlando  arrived  the  King  and 
Queen  of  Italy,  the  Duke  of  Genoa,  and  the  crown 
prince  appeared  on  the  balcony  of  the  Quirinal  Palace 
amid  the  thunderous  acclamations  of  the  crowds,  and 
here  later  the  prime  minister  joined  them.  The  next 
day  Prince  Colonna  addressed  a  meeting  in  front  of  the 


THE  rOUETEEN  POIi^TS  169 

Capitol,  and  declared  that  Fiume  as  well  as  the  land 
named  in  the  treaty  of  London  should  be  annexed,  and 
that  the  Government  should  remember  its  duty  in  re- 
gard to  "  other  unredeemed  Italian  cities,  and  especially 
Spalato  and  Trau.''  On  April  28  Signor  Orlando  ad- 
dressed the  Chamber  and  the  Senate,  giving  his  story  of 
the  negotiations.  He  said  that  the  point  of  view  of 
Great  Britain  and  France  v^as  that  they  meant  to  ob- 
serve their  "  pledge  of  honor  ''  given  in  the  secret  treaty. 
He  added: 

It  has  been  stated  that  inasmuch  as  the  treaty  does  not  include 
Flume  in  the  Italian  claims,  they  do  not  think  they  can  agree  on 
this  question  with  the  Italian  point  of  view,  and  could  assent  to 
the  principle  of  making  Fiume  a  free  and  independent  sovereign 
city  only  on  condition  that  this  should  be  by  way  of  a  compro- 
mise, and  not  as  a  supplement  to  the  integral  execution  of  the 
clauses  of  the  treaty. 

Ostensibly  all  Italy  stood  back  of  the  prime  minis- 
ter. President  Wilson's  statement  seemed  to  the  Ital- 
ians so  much  like  an  attack  on  their  pride  that  they 
dropped  their  party  bickerings  and  united  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  delegation  in  Paris.  Even  those  Italians 
who  had  fought  the  Italian  program  as  too  ambitious, 
men  like  Leonida  Bissolati,  the  socialist  leader  who 
withdrew  from  the  Orlando  cabinet  late  in  1918  be- 
cause he  would  not  support  the  Dalmatian  claims  of 
Italy,  declared  that  he  supported  Italy's  claims  to 
Fiume  on  the  ground  of  President  Wilson's  own  prin- 
ciples. Gabriele  D'Annunzio,  the  poet,  an  overzealous 
nationalist,  became  vituperative  in  his  personal  criticism 
of  the  American  President.  Signor  Turati  and  the 
official  socialists  refrained  from  joining  the  acclama- 


170  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

tions  for  Orlando,  explaining  that  although  they  fa- 
vored self-determination  for  Eiume,  they  did  not  wish 
to  enter  into  the  burning  question  of  the  moment,  for 
they  differed  from  the  whole  system  by  which  affairs 
were  being  arranged  in  Paris. 

Severe  criticism  of  President  Wilson's  act  might  have 
been  looked  for  in  the  Italian  newspapers,  but  there 
were  a  large  number  of  organs  of  various  political 
groups  in  England  that  were  no  less  abusive.  The 
"  Daily  Express  "  of  London  called  the  statement :  ^'  A 
sample  of  diplomacy  gone  mad.  It  is  the  rabies  of 
diplomacy."  The  London  "  Globe  ''  spoke  of  "  blun- 
dering, blustering  diplomacy  of  the  big  stick."  The 
London  "  Dispatch  "  said  that  "  most  significant  of  all 
is  the  resignation  of  the  American  ambassador  at  Rome, 
who  also  disagrees  with  the  president."  ''  John  Bull  " 
spoke  of  "  an  overbearing  autocrat."  "  The  Morning 
Post "  called  the  act  "  wild  West  diplomacy "  and 
added :  "  President  Wilson  has  come  among  the  al- 
lies like  a  rich  uncle.  They  have  accepted  his  manners 
out  of  respect  for  his  means."  "  The  Times,"  how- 
ever, refused  to  become  excited  over  an  "  innovation  " 
feeling  that  the  unprecedented  condition  of  the  world 
made  many  innovations  inevitable,  if  things  were  to 
move  at  all. 

The  administrative  council  of  the  Confederation 
Generale  du  Travail,  the  labor  federation  of  Paris,  sent 
the  following  statement  to  President  Wilson : 

Your  strong  and  public  protest  against  the  Italian  claims  has 
met,  we  can  assure  you,  with  unqualified  approval  in  the  minds 
of  the  French  working  classes,  in  the  name  of  whom  we  thank 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  171 

you  for  this  new  mark  of  courage  and  fidelity  to  the  peace  prin- 
ciples of  which  you  have  made  yourself  the  champion,  and  which 
ought  to  be  imposed  on  all  the  belligerents  in  the  sacred  interests 
of  the  peoples  and  peace. 

Gustave  Herve,  however,  writing  in  "  La  Victoire," 
undertook  to  dim  the  brightness  of  this  compliment  from 
the  workers.  He  reminded  the  President  that  the  rul- 
ers of  the  confederation,  after  all,  "  represent  only  the 
Bolsheviki  of  Prance,  and  that  the  rest  of  the  coun- 
try —  that  is  to  say  practically  the  whole  of  France  — 
has  been  plunged  into  despair  these  last  three  days  ow- 
ing to  the  attitude  adopted  toward  Italy,  their  friend 
and  ally." 

It  was  now  the  Council  of  the  Three  that  sat  in 
Paris:  President  Wilson,  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  and  M. 
Clemenceau.  They  turned  from  the  Italian  situation 
and  took  up  other  questions,  such  as  that  of  the  German 
leaseholds  in  Shan-tung.  In  the  meantime  the  work  of 
trying  to  find  a  solution  for  the  Adriatic  dispute  went 
forward  unofficially.  It  was  pointed  out  that  Italy  did 
not  ask  the  whole  Dalmatian  coast,  but  that  more  than 
half  of  this  coast,  many  of  the  islands  and  historically 
Italian  towns  like  Spalato  and  Ragusa  were  left  to  the 
Jugo  Slavs.  Spalato  is  160  miles  south  of  Fiume  and 
capable  of  great  development.  When  Italy  first  began 
her  negotiations  with  the  Allies  before  entering  the 
war,  she  asked  for  the  neutralization  of  the  whole  coast- 
line, including  Montenegro,  as  well  as  the  towns  of 
Spalato,  Trau,  and  the  Peninsula  of  Sabbioncello.  Rus- 
sia protested,  and  Italy  modified  her  claims  to  those 
contained  within  the  pact  of  London.  Among  other 
suggestions   were  these:   that   the  Allies   should   give 


m  THE  ADVEN-TURES  OF 

Eiume  to  Italy  and  build  a  new  harbor  for  tbe  Jugo 
Slavs  elsewhere,  as  for  instance  at  Senj,  thirty  miles 
southeast  of  Fiume,  or  at  Buccari,  opening  on  the  Gulf 
of  Fiume,  and  reached  more  quickly  than  Fiume  by 
trains  from  Agram. 

In  the  next  few  weeks  the  American  mission  was  re- 
galed with  the  comment  on  the  President's  note  coming 
from  the  United  States  —  comment  of  various  kinds. 
The  widely  quoted  remarks  of  Senator  Lodge,  asking  the 
same  treatment  for  Dantzic  as  for  Fiume,  and  depre- 
cating American  intervention  in  European  affairs,  ap- 
peared to  please  Italian  opinion.  The  Italians  also 
in  their  propaganda  material  made  use  of  reports  that 
the  legislatures  of  Massachusetts  and  Illinois  had  re- 
quested the  American  mission  to  grant  the  claims  of 
Italy  in  full. 

Eventually  the  negotiations  were  resumed.  Finding 
the  American  President  firm  in  his  views,  the  Italian 
delegation  now  began  to  admit  the  possibility  of  com- 
promising on  details  of  the  pact  of  London,  although 
holding  fast  to  Fiume.  More  attention  also  came  to 
be  given  to  Italy's  claims  in  Asia  Minor  and  in  Africa. 
While  this  was  in  progress,  Italian  public  opinion, 
which  had  so  enthusiastically  indorsed  Orlando,  veered 
and  began  to  be  extremely  critical  and  fault-finding  with 
the  Italian  delegation  because  it  had  been  unable  to 
accomplish  anything.  ^'  The  war  was  won,  but  we  have 
lost  the  peace,''  was  a  phrase  that  began  to  be  repeated 
in  Italy,  and  the  blame  was  placed  upon  the  shoulders 
of  Baron  Sonnino,  who  from  the  first  had  directed 
Italy's  foreign  affairs. 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  173 

Then  the  idea  of  building  up  a  buffer  state  of  Fiume 
came  to  the  foreground. 

This  city,  the  bone  of  contention,  was  now  to  be 
made  a  sovereign  city  under  the  League  of  Nations,  and 
provided  with  sufficient  territory  so  that  it  would  not 
be  amenable  to  foreign  influences.  One  of  the  most 
discussed  of  the  plans  was  drawn  up  by  M.  Tardieu, 
who  is  also  said  to  be  the  author  of  the  plan  govern- 
ing the  Saar  basin.  M.  Tardieu  proposed  that  the 
town  of  Fiume,  excluding  the  suburb  of  Sussak,  should 
form  a  free  state  under  the  League  of  Nations,  together 
with  the  territory  of  Volosca  and  the  islands  of  Cherso, 
Arbe,  and  Yeglia.  The  state  was  to  have  the  southeast- 
ern stretch  of  the  railway  running  from  Fiume  to 
Laibach  and  to  follow  the  frontier  of  Italy,  which  was 
to  get  the  rest  of  Istria.  It  was  to  be  administered  by 
a  council  composed  of  two  Italians  from  the  Kingdom 
of  Italy,  one  inhabitant  of  Fiume,  one  Jugo  Slav,  and 
one  Hungarian.  Italy  was  to  receive  Zara,  Sebenico, 
and  the  islands  of  Lussin,  Lissa,  and  Curzola.  Italy 
was  also  to  have  a  mandate  over  Albania  under  the 
League.  A  plebiscite  was  to  be  taken  within  fifteen 
years  in  Fiume,  so  that  the  inhabitants  might  deter- 
mine what  state  they  wished  to  join. 

At  about  the  same  time  Colonel  House  made  a  pro- 
posal to  Signor  Orlando  on  his  own  initiative,  saying, 
however,  that  it  was  not  necessarily  approved  by  Presi- 
dent Wilson.  This  plan  is  understood  to  have  had  the 
support  of  Mr.  Lloyd  George  and  M.  Clemenceau.  Colo- 
nel Housd  wanted  to  give  the  whole  of  Istria  to  Italy, 
as  in  the  treaty  of  London,  and  make  Fiume  a  sovereign 


174  THE  ADVEISTTURES  OF 

city,  with  Italy  representing  it  diplomatically.  He  also 
gave  Zara  and  Sebenico  to  Italy,  as  well  as  the  Quarnero 
and  other  islands. 

President  Wilson  did  not  approve  of  the  plan  of 
Colonel  House,  because  he  wanted  a  line  drawn  through 
Istria  so  that  the  Jugo  Slavs  would  command  the  Lai- 
bach  railway.  There  are  130,000  Slovenes  and  only 
4,000  Italians  in  eastern  Istria,  and  the  President  did 
not  feel  justified  in  giving  all  this  to  Italy.  He  did  not 
wish  Italian  territory  to  border  direct  on  the  city  of 
Fiume. 

The  Jugo  Slavs  objected  to  any  settlement  that  would 
not  give  them  Fiume,  and  naturally  did  not  wish  a  pre- 
ponderant Italian  majority  in  the  government  of  Fiume, 
nor  to  have  the  city  represented  by  Italy  diplomatically. 
Objection  was  also  raised  to  the  idea  of  a  plebiscite 
within  fifteen  years.  It  was  reported  at  one  time  that 
the  Jugo  Slavs  demanded  a  plebiscite  in  three  years, 
saying  that  in  fifteen  the  complexion  of  the  place  might 
have  been  changed  by  infiltration.  They  also  wanted 
a  plebiscite  for  the  territory  as  a  whole,  whereas  the 
Italians  demanded  a  plebiscite  by  districts,  so  that  a 
Jugo  Slav  majority  outside  the  town  could  not  out- 
weigh the  Italian  majority  within  it.  Gradually  opin- 
ion at  the  conference  inclined  toward  the  creation  of  a 
state  of  Fiume,  with  sovereign  rights  under  the  League 
of  Nations,  free  from  all  outside  control  and  governing 
itself.  The  renunciation  by  Italy  of  virtually  150,000 
Slavs  in  the  interior  of  Dalmatia  also  helped  clear  the 
atmosphere. 

Although  glad  to  see  the  Italian  claims  cut  down. 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  175 

by  the  suggestion  of  a  free  state  of  Fiume,  tlie  Jugo 
Slavs  were  not  ready  to  give  up  land  for  it  which  they 
considered  a  part  of  Jugo  Slavia.  Thus  they  opposed 
the  inclusion  of  Sussak  and  the  island  of  Veglia,  al- 
though they  wanted  the  inclusion  of  Istria  up  to  the 
Pola-Triest  railway. 

With  the  controversy  between  President  Wilson  and 
the  Italian  delegation  thus  clearly  in  mind,  it  may  be 
profitable  to  indicate  what  Italy  sought  in  other  fields, 
with  a  view  to  understanding  Italy's  aims  at  the  Peace 
Conference  as  a  whole. 

Italy  demanded  in  Asia  Minor  the  vilayets  of  Adalia 
and  Konia,  and  southern  Anatolia,  together  with  cer- 
tain coal-mining  concessions  in  northern  Anatolia. 

Italy  opposed  the  formation  of  a  Danube  confedera- 
tion out  of  the  former  Austria-Hungary,  a  policy  pur- 
sued by  France,  feeling  that  it  would  be  anti-Italian. 
Italy  also  opposed  the  formation  of  a  customs  union  of 
these  states. 

Italy  opposed  the  transfer  to  Greece  of  western 
Thrace,  held  by  Bulgaria  under  the  terms  of  the  treaty 
of  Bukharest.  Italy  also  felt  that  she  had  a  certain 
claim  on  Smyrna,  which  was  given  her  in  the  con- 
vention of  St.  Jean  de  Maurienne,  but  which  was  oc- 
cupied by  Greek  troops  during  the  spring  of  1919  with 
the  consent  of  the  powers. 

Italy  demanded  a  rectification  of  the  frontier  of 
Libya-Tunis,  in  an  endeavor  to  get  the  caravan  route 
that  connects  the  two  roads  of  Ghat  and  Ghadames,  as 
well  as  rectification  of  the  Libyan  frontier  on  the  Egyp- 
tian side,  with  the  possible  cession  of  Jubaland  and 


176  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

the  port  of  Kismayu  by  England.  Italy  also  sought 
territorial  concessions  in  French  Somaliland  and  Jibuti, 
in  order  to  complete  the  northeast  African  possessions 
of  Italy  and  to  give  her  a  route  for  economic  penetration 
into  Abyssinia  by  way  of  the  Jibuti-Addis-Abeba  rail- 
way. It  was  understood  that  France  brought  consid- 
erable opposition  to  this  scheme,  and  endeavored  to 
pave  the  way  for  Italy  to  help  administer  a  part  of  the 
Portuguese  colony  of  Angola,  which  would  not  hurt 
France. 

While  these  negotiations  were  going  on,  the  heat  of 
the  controversy  with  President  Wilson  cooled.  The 
Italian  press  began  to  be  more  and  more  critical  of  the 
work  accomplished  by  the  Italian  representatives  in 
Paris,  blaming  them  rather  than  the  American  Presi- 
dent for  the  lack  of  progress.  It  was  charged  that 
Baron  Sonnino  had  failed  to  make  friends  everywhere ; 
that  he  might  have  followed  one  of  two  policies : 

Either  an  open  policy  of  sympathy  and  of  solidarity  with  all 
the  little  powers,  or  a  hidden  policy  of  agreement  and  entente 
with  certain  of  the  great  powers  in  such  a  way  as  to  insure  solid 
support  in  the  interplay  of  the  various  interests.  But  Orlando 
and  Sonnino  have  followed  neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  and  to 
this  is  to  be  imputed  the  main  blame  for  Italy's  isolation.  .  .  . 
With  the  unconsidered  step  by  which  they  abandoned  the  con- 
ference Sonnino  and  Orlando  seemed  to  tell  the  Italian  people 
they  could  and  ought  to  act  independently.  But  then  suddenly 
and  secretly  they  slipped  back  to  Paris,  and  to  those  who  asked 
why,  they  said  that  separation  from  the  allied  and  associated 
powers  would  have  been  dangerous  and  that  our  interest  counseled 
us  to  participate  in  the  labors  of  the  conference  up  till  the  last. 

The  agitation  for  their  resignation  began.  Two 
members  of  the  delegation  dropped  out,  Salandra  and 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  177 

Salvago-Raggi.  The  issue,  however,  could  not  long  be 
avoided. 

On  June  19  Prime  Minister  Orlando  appeared  be- 
fore the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in  Rome  and  endeavored 
to  justify  the  policy  of  the  Italian  delegation  in  Paris. 
He  said  that  it  had  been  the  endeavor  of  the  delegation 

to  maintain  with  all  firmness  the  essential  points  of  the  Italian 
claims,  without  which  Italy  is  convinced  peace  will  neither  be  just 
nor  adequate  to  the  immense  sacrifices  suffered;  to  remain  faith- 
ful in  its  duties  to  its  allies;  to  avoid  any  blind  form  of  obstinate 
intransigeance.  Indeed,  we  have  tried  to  facilitate  conciliatory 
suggestions  capable  of  producing  accord  in  the  conference  over 
the  problems  concerning  Italian  frontiers.  Economic  and  politi- 
cal problems  of  Italy  have  been  solved  in  a  manner  with  which, 
on  the  whole,  I  feel  satisfied.  Besides  we  have  obtained  the  de- 
termination of  our  northern  frontier  along  the  magnificent  bar- 
rier which  nature  placed  as  Italy's  bulwark.  Regarding  the  east- 
ern Adriatic  Italy  has  not  refused  to  discuss  such  solutions  as 
are  capable  of  insuring  an  agreement  of  all  the  great  powers,  but 
failing  which  Italy  remains  firm  in  demanding  those  territories 
granted  her  by  a  solemn  pledge  of  validity  which  was  acknowl- 
edged by  our  allies,  who  declared  that  these  same  territories  were 
to  be  assigned  to  Italy  as  a  reward  for  her  entering  the  great 
struggle. 

All  of  which  was  very  well,  but  it  did  not  satisfy  the 
deputies.  The  great  question,  the  vital  question,  after 
all,  was,  "  What  have  you  done  in  the  matter  of 
Fiume  ?  " 

The  reply  of  Signor  Orlando  was  not  at  all  convinc- 
ing. He  asked  the  chamber  to  go  into  secret  session 
in  order  that  he  might  discuss  his  policy  in  Paris.  He 
added  that  he  would  consider  the  vote  on  his  proposal 
as  a  vote  of  confidence  in  his  administration. 

The  deputies  defeated  the  proposal  by  259   to   78 


178  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

votes,  a  severe  blow  for  the  Paris  delegation,  and  the 
Orlando  ministry  thereby  passed  out  of  power.  Prime 
Minister  Orlando  resigned.  Baron  Sonnino  followed 
his  example,  and  the  delegation  which  had  fought  for 
Fiume  and  incurred  the  opposition  of  President  Wil- 
son passed  into  history. 

Baron  Sonnino,  M.  S.  Crespi,  and  the  Marquis  Im- 
periali  placed  their  signatures  under  the  treaty  of  peace 
with  Germany  on  behalf  of  Italy  on  June  28. 

The  King  of  Italy  called  upon  Francesco  Saverio 
Kitti  to  form  a  cabinet ;  a  singular  choice,  as  Nitti  had 
left  the  cabinet  of  Orlando  in  January  because  he  dis- 
agreed with  Italy's  pretensions  to  a  great  part  of  the 
Adriatic  coast-line.  He  had  previously  visited  the 
United  States  in  1917  with  the  mission  of  the  Prince 
of  Udine,  and  had  entered  the  cabinet  the  same  year 
as  minister  of  the  treasury.  When  he  left  he  had  the 
same  views  as  Bissolati  —  that  Italy  should  cultivate  the 
friendship  of  the  Jugo  Slavs,  whom  he  considered  a 
coming  power  in  the  Balkans.  Some  of  the  opposition 
newspapers  called  Nitti  a  lieutenant  of  Giolitti. 

It  might  be  expected  from  this  choice  that  the  policy 
of  Italy  in  Paris  would  be  considerably  modified,  but 
a  surprise  came  when  Signer  Tomasso  Tittoni  was 
named  minister  of  foreign  affairs.  Tittoni  had  previ- 
ously served  in  this  office  from  1903  to  1905  and  from 
1906  to  1910.  In  the  latter  year  he  was  made  am- 
bassador to  France,  in  which  capacity  he  served  until 
1916.  Tittoni  was  in  Paris  when  the  secret  treaties 
were  negotiated,  and  though  the  name  of  the  Marquis 
Imperiali  is  signed  to  the  one  affecting  Italy,  Tittoni 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  179 

played  an  important  role  in  the  negotiations  leading  np 
to  Italy's  entrance  into  the  war.  Signer  Orlando  had 
headed  the  delegation  in  Paris,  but  Prime  Minister 
Nitti  determined  to  remain  in  Rome  and  to  send  his 
foreign  minister  to  direct  the  Paris  negotiations. 

^o  matter  how  diplomatically  Signer  Tittoni  bows 
to  the  will  of  the  conference  in  Paris  and  accepts  a  com- 
promise settlement  of  the  Fiume  dispute,  the  contro- 
versy over  this  little  town  will  not  be  ended.  It  may  go 
on  for  years,  for  the  issue  has  now  become  clean-cut,  and 
the  Italians  of  Fiume  will  not  easily  forget  their  Italian- 
ity.  And  Fiimie,  having  declared  its  annexation  to 
Italy,  has  taken  another  step  that  demonstrates  the  tem- 
per of  the  Fiumians.  On  June  13  the  Italian  National 
Council  of  Fiume  held  an  extraordinary  session  at  which 
it  voted  the  institution  of  an  army  for  the  defense  of 
Fiume.  To  meet  the  expenses  of  this  army  it  voted  to 
issue  bonds  up  to  100,000,000  lire,  or  $20,000,000. 
To  further  the  administration  of  justice,  it  voted  that 
hereafter  all  decrees  shall  bear  the  formula  ''  Victor 
Emmanuel  III,  by  the  grace  of  God  and  the  wishes  of 
the  nation  King  of  Italy,  etc."  And  as  director  of 
all  the  affairs  of  war  of  the  town  of  Fiume,  the  coun- 
cil named  Sem  Benelli,  poet  and  patriot,  incomparable 
author  of  ^'  The  Love  of  the  Three  Kings."  Verily,  it 
is  a  story  of  romance,  of  politics,  and  intrigue,  this 
story  of  Fiume. 


CHAPTER  X 

Conference    days    in    Paris  —  Jottings    from    a   note-book   in    the 
year  of  the  great  peace. 

Pakis  of  Peace  Conference  days,  what  an  odd,  exotic 
place  it  is,  not  at  all  like  Paris  of  the  Parisians !  Pilled 
with  men  of  strange  tongues  and  stranger  dress;  with 
statesmen  who  speak  in  the  legislative  chambers  of 
half  the  world;  with  the  back  wash  of  the  war;  with 
tattered  surviving  elements  of  whole  cities,  refugees 
who  possess  nothing  but  the  clothes  upon  their  backs; 
with  gaily  adorned  commanding  officers  of  armies  and 
navies  loaded  down  with  insignia,  decorations,  and  gold 
lace.  Vienna  in  the  year  of  the  congress  presented  no 
scene  like  this. 

There  is  that  famous  line  of  the  old  Prince  de  Ligne 
at  the  congress,  one  hundred  and  four  years  ago :  "  Le 
congres  danse/'  he  said,  *'  mais  il  ne  marche  pas/' 
What  would  the  old  field-marshal  and  favorite  of  Cath- 
erine II  of  Russia  say  to-day  could  he  see  Paris  of  the 
Peace  Conference  —  the  Paris  in  which  statesmen  are 
cudgeling  their  brains  over  the  problems  of  the  coming 
peace  ?  To-day  it  is  Paris  that  dances,  Paris  of  the 
Poilu,  of  the  doughboy,  of  the  Tommy  and  the  Anzac ; 
Paris  of  the  bright,  colorful  night  life,  which  has  crept 
so  cautiously  into  its  own.  Perhaps  it  was  always  there 
even  during  the  war.     It  is  as  if  some  one  had  drawn 

180 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  181 

back  a  thick  hanging  of  old  Gobelin  tapestry  and  re- 
vealed the  figures  of  an  ancient  frieze  pirouetting  on  a 
waxen  floor. 

I  sat  to-night  in  the  auditorium  of  the  Casino  de 
Paris  while  the  fighters  of  the  !N'ew  and  the  Old  World 
mingled  in  one  mad,  intoxicating  throng,  a  medley  of 
o.  d.,  horizon  blue,  gold  braid,  stiff  red  collars,  tasseled 
caps,  broad-brimmed  Anzac  hats;  colonials  of  another 
race ;  brave,  bearded  men  wearing  the  Croix  de  Guerre, 
the  Medaille  Militaire,  and  the  ribbon  of  the  Legion. 

The  soldier  world  of  Paris  finds  its  way  easily  to  the 
casino.  It  is  a  house  of  dance  and  song,  where  Broad- 
way melodies  of  a  season  or  two  ago  come  back  to  life 
resplendent  with  topical  verses  that  Broadway  would 
never  recognize.  It  is  a  theater  where  men  may  loll 
back  in  their  chairs  and  smoke,  and  where  between  the 
acts  resounds  the  tumultuous  cacophony  of  the  French 
version  of  the  American  "  jazz  "  band.  It  is  the  thea- 
ter where  Mistinguet  plays  her  thirty  odd  roles  in  one 
evening  and  goes  through  the  most  maddening  attack 
of  cyclonic  dancing  that  Paris  has  ever  seen. 

A  lieutenant  of  engineers  leaned  forward  and  tapped 
me  on  the  arm.  "  See,"  he  said,  '^  even  our  diplomats 
come  to  the  casino." 

It  was  true.  Several  of  the  world's  great  statesmen 
were  occupying  a  box,  but  scarcely  one  of  the  numerous 
throng  in  uniform  was  aware  of  it  or  cared.  In  that, 
too,  time  had  wrought  great  changes  since  Vienna. 
There  the  crowd  came  because  the  sovereigns  came;  it 
stood  for  hours  in  the  rain  or  the  hot  sun  waiting  for  a 
glimpse  of  its  masters.     And  those  who  wrote  of  Vienna 


182  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

spoke  at  great  length  of  the  emperors  and  kings  and 
princes  and  nobles  that  graced  the  public  festivals,  and 
gave  but  scant  space  to  the  rabble  that  bore  arms.  I 
recalled  a  few  lines  in  the  memoirs  of  Count  de  la  Garde 
devoted  to  the  crowds  that  gathered  in  the  Augarten  to 
view  the  monarchs  as  they  passed  with  their  troops,  or 
stood  on  tiptoe  to  gaze  as  the  sovereigns  attended  mili- 
tary mass.  There  was  one  titled  woman  who  com- 
plained that  the  rabble  had  torn  her  clothes  —  the  rab- 
ble that  was  there  only  to  die  for  the  nobility  of  that  day. 
The  casino  was  one  agitated  mass  of  color.  Through 
the  thick  tobacco  smoke  shone  blue,  khaki,  red,  and  gold. 
Even  the  mimic  world  across  the  footlights  was  trying 
to  mingle  with  the  mass.  From  the  stage  Albert  Chev- 
alier was  leading  the  audience  in  a  new  version  of  that 
wonderful  marching-song  "  Madelon.''  It  was  a  new 
Madelon  this  time,  a  Madelon  of  victory.  A  canvas 
sheet  was  dropped,  showing  the  words  of  the  chorus. 
The  Poilus  rallied  for  the  refrain.  The  doughboys  so 
far  had  met  nothing  inside  the  dictionary  or  out  to  deter 
them.  They  shouted  in  wild  disharmony.  And  thus 
it  ran: 

Madelon,  emplis  mon  verre 
Et  chante  avec  les  poilus ! 
Nous  avons  gagne  la  guerre 
Hein !     Crois-tu  qu'on  les  a  eus ! 
Madelon,  ah !  verse  a  boire, 
Et  surtout  n'y  mets  pas  d'eau, 
C'est  pour  feter  la  victoire, 
Joifre,  Foch,  et  Clemenceau! 

Throughout  the  hall  men  were  joining  in  —  Chas- 
seurs Alpins  wearing  their  tam-o'-shanters,  Scotchmen 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  183 

in  plaids,  Canadians  and  Tommies  liberally  sprinkled 
with  brass  insignia,  and  Americans  with  all  sorts  of  odd 
devices  on  their  sleeves :  the  magic  figures  1  for  the  First 
Division;  the  fir-tree  of  California,  the  sun,  the  wild- 
cat, the  Indian  head,  and  all  the  picturesque  markings 
that  have  been  evolved  since  the  war  began. 

It  was  a  friendly,  a  sociable  crowd.  Its  variegated 
make-up  was  typical  of  all  Paris  of  the  conference. 

To-day  in  Paris  ministers  plenipotentiary  and  com- 
missioners extraordinary  mingle  on  the  boulevards  and 
in  the  cafes,  sit  beside  bronzed  doughboys  in  the 
"  Metro,"  haggle  with  tradesmen  in  the  rue,  run  after 
elusive  cabs  and  await  their  turn  among  the  unnum- 
bered hundreds  for  a  room  with  bath  at  the  few  avail- 
able hotels.  At  night  in  the  music  halls,  theaters,  and 
opera-houses  of  Paris  one  sees  the  men  who  have  won 
the  war  with  their  fists  and  the  men  who  are  to  secure 
the  peace  of  the  world  by  their  wits  and  mental  power 
sitting  side  by  side. 

January  7,  1919. 

There  was  an  exhilarating  tang  in  the  air  that  made 
me  want  to  walk  when  I  left  my  hotel  on  the  Quai 
d'Orsay  early  to-day.  I  swung  across  the  Pont  Royal, 
and  reveled  in  the  sight  of  the  turbulent  and  swollen 
Seine,  and  walked  with  a  brisk  step  across  the  Garden 
of  the  Tuileries.  Far  down  on  the  Rue  de  Rivoli  I 
could  see  the  large  fagade  of  the  Ministry  of  Marine 
and  of  the  Hotel  de  Crillon,  and  through  the  morning 
haze  I  could  see  the  flagstaffs,  with  the  flag  of  France 
flying  from  the  staff  on  the  one  building,  and  the  flag 
of  the  United  States  flyina:  from  the  other. 


184  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Even  at  that  distance  it  appeared  as  if  the  flag  on 
the  Crillon  was  at  half-mast.  Perhaps  it  was  only  a 
momentary  illusion,  I  reflected,  as  I  turned  into  the 
arcades  of  the  Kivoli.  Then  I  passed  a  news-vender's 
stand,  and  there  in  ''  Le  Matin  '•  1  read  the  news : 
Roosevelt  was  dead. 

Only  a  matter  of  a  few  brief  lines  at  that,  but  they 
sufficed  to  tell  the  tale.  It  seemed  incredible.  Even 
here,  in  this  environment,  where  anything  could  hap- 
pen and  anything  be  believed,  I  found  it  hard  to  com- 
prehend that  T.  R.  was  dead. 

I  did  not  think  of  him  as  a  part  of  this  conference 
or  even  as  a  factor  in  the  peace  negotiations.  lie 
seemed  more  an  inseparable  part  of  America,  three 
thousand  miles  away.  It  was  as  if  the  report  had  come 
that  there  was  no  longer  a  A^ew  York  or  a  San  Fran- 
cisco, as  if  some  gigantic  physical  upheaval  had 
changed  the  map  of  the  world. 

As  I  turned  into  the  Rue  de  Castiglione  my  mind 
was  busy  with  his  career  as  a  great  public  figure.  It 
was  amazingly  short,  this  career,  so  short  that  even  I, 
who  thought  of  myself  hardly  at  the  median  line  of 
life,  could  touch  both  ends  of  it. 

Fifteen,  twenty  years  sufficed  to  write  his  story. 
Yes,  it  was  only  fifteen  years  ago  this  summer  that  he 
had  been  nominated,  on  his  own,  for  the  highest  office 
in  the  land  at  the  convention  in  Chicago  which  it  had 
been  my  good  fortune  to  attend. 

I  thought  of  the  times  that  I  had  seen  him,  of  the 
conditions  under  which  I  had  talked  with  him,  of  the 
enthusiasm    he    had    always    aroused    within    me.     I 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  186 

thought  of  one  of  the  last  times  I  saw  him  —  in  the 
compartment  of  a  speeding  train,  when  he  had  eluci- 
dated his  doctrine  that  a  man  could  be  neither  Swedish 
nor  French  nor  English  nor  German  if  he  claimed 
citizenship  in  the  United  States,  but  just  pure  Ameri- 
can, striving  with  heart  and  soul  for  the  welfare  of 
his  native  land,  no  matter  what  the  origin  of  the  name 
he  bore  or  the  blood  that  flowed  in  his  veins.  How 
truly  we  Americans  needed  that  preachment  to-day  — 
here  in  Paris ! 

The  announcement  of  his  death  took  just  a  few  lines 
in  "  Le  Matin,''  but  Stephane  Lauzanne  had  risen 
ffloriouslv  to  do  honor  to  this  friend  of  France.  At 
the  top  of  his  first  two  columns  appeared  in  black 
type  the  words  of  Roosevelt  to  Lauzanne :  "  I  have  nc 
message  to  send  to  France.  I  have  given  my  best.  li 
you  speak  of  me,  say  simply  that  I  have  but  one  regret, 
that  I  was  not  able  to  give  myself !  "  And  Lauzanne 
told  of  his  last  meeting  with  T.  R.  in  Oyster  Bay. 
''  His  was  a  great  figure ;  and,  what  is  even  better,  a 
fine  mind." 

"  Roosevelt  is  gone,"  I  said  to  a  friend.  "  Can  you 
believe  it  ?  " 

He  shook  his  head. 

'^  America  won't  be  the  same  place  when  we  get 
back,  will  it  ?  "  he  said. 

January  25,  1919. 
Louis  XIV  was  his  own  congress  of  nations.     He 
remade  Europe  with  the  sword.     President  Wilson  is 
easily  the  leading  figure  at  this  congress  of  nations. 


186  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

He  works  with  the  pen.  Yet,  like  Louis,  after  a  hard 
day's  work  in  remaking  the  world  he  turns  to  the  opera. 
In  the  davs  when  Louis  first  danced  in  the  opera 
America  was  a  colonial  wilderness.  When  Jean- 
Philippe  Rameau  wrote  his  simple  harmonies  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  United  States 
was  still  unborn;  the  Bourbon  kings  were  still  pow- 
erful, and  imperial  trappings  were  to  be  seen  in  those 
days  before  and  behind  the  curtain. 

To-day  they  have  been  retired  to  where  they  be- 
long, behind  the  scenes;  yet  it  was  odd  that  the  first 
opera  ever  attended  by  a  President  of  the  United  States 
in  Paris  should  be  one  written  by  Rameau  for  a  Bour- 
bon king.  No  one  in  the  time  of  Louis  could  ever 
have  dreamed  that  one  day  a  President  would  sit  in 
state  to  hear  the  beloved  music,  or  that  he  would  pass 
behind  the  stage,  where  royalty  and  famous  artists  had 
gone  before  him,  to  meet  men  and  women  in  the  service 
of  art.  It  was  the  first  time  in  the  centuries-old  history 
of  the  opera  in  Paris  that  the  "  Star-Spangled  Banner  " 
was  sung  from  the  stage.  Germaine  Lubin,  prima 
donna  of  the  opera,  sang  it,  and  Marthe  Chenal  sang 
the  ^'  Marseillaise,"  the  two  standing  before  a  shield 
of  the  arms  of  Paris  surmounted  by  the  flags  of  the 
Allies.  The  thrill  that  came  to  the  Americans  in  that 
audience  must  have  been  felt  by  the  French,  respon- 
sive as  they  are  to  dramatic  incidents  of  that  kind. 

The  opera,  which  has  been  slowly  coming  back  to 
its  own,  blossomed  out  in  gala  attire  for  the  President's 
visit.  There  again  were  to  be  seen  the  charming  toilets 
and  display  of  gems  which  it  was  not  good  form  to 


THE  EOURTEEJSr  POINTS  187 

wear  during  the  war.  But  the  number  of  uniforms 
of  generals,  colonels,  captains,  and  men  of  lesser  rank 
of  all  the  Allied  armies  stood  out  in  sharp  contrast 
to  the  picture  of  the  opera  as  it  was  before  the  war. 

In  the  famous  foyer  the  crystal  chandeliers  were  only 
half  lighted,  and  the  marble  and  onyx  of  the  great 
staircase  seemed  gray  and  dimmed  by  dust;  but  the 
reception  that  Paris  society  gave  the  American  Presi- 
dent lacked  nothing  in  intensity.  The  halls  that  had 
resounded  with  cheers  for  musicians  and  artists  now 
echoed  with  cheers  for  the  President  of  a  democratic 
nation.  It  was  only  fitting  that  grand  opera  in  Paris 
should  come  back  to  life  like  that. 

Eebruary  20,  1919. 

There  is  talk  in  the  corridors  of  the  Crillon  about 
1920.  Not  only  in  the  corridors,  but  in  the  offices,  too, 
and  in  what  a  European  journalist  would  call  ^'  high 
places."  The  men  in  the  corridors  do  the  speculating; 
the  men  in  the  offices  do  the  worrying.  For  the  Demo- 
cratic party  must  have  a  candidate  in  1920  who  can 
bring  with  his  victory  an  indorsement  of  the  President's 
conduct  of  the  war  and  the  peace  negotiations. 

One  of  the  leaders  of  the  Democratic  party  who  has 
been  unusually  conspicuous  as  a  friend  of  the  Presi- 
dent told  a  newspaper  man  to-day  that  it  was  most  likely, 
in  fact  highly  probable,  that  Herbert  Clark  Hoover  — 
ahem,  he  was  almost  willing  to  say  that  without  a 
doubt  Herbert  Clark  Hoover  —  well,  anyhow,  would  n't 
Hoover  make  a  bully  nominee,  and  could  the  Democrats 
put  him  across  ? 


188  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

To-morrow,  dear  reader,  there  will  be  a  paragraph 
in  a  Xew  York  newspaper,  saying  that  there  is  a  grow- 
ing sentiment  in  high  Democratic  circles  in  favor  of 
Herbert  Clark  Hoover,  who  has  done  such  wonderful 
work  in  Belgium. 

That  is  one  instance  of  how  political  leaders  try  out 
the  names  of  possible  candidates.  The  paragraph  will 
be  copied  by  other  newspapers  and  commented  upon. 
Shrewd  politicians  w^ill  watch  for  its  effect  on  the  pub- 
lic mind.  By  that  they  will  measure  the  availability 
of  the  man. 

Considering  the  source  of  the  suggestion,  we  can 
come  to  three  conclusions:  that  President  Wilson  will 
not  become  a  candidate  except  for  exceptional  circum- 
stances ;  that  the  administration  has  not  yet  determined 
on  its  candidate;  that  Herbert  Clark  Hoover  is  consid- 
ered a  possibility. 

Before  the  war  the  name  of  Herbert  Clark  Hoover 
was  known  only  in  the  field  of  his  profession,  and  dur- 
ing the  war  he  minded  strictly  his  task  —  that  and 
nothing  more.  And  to-morrow  —  who  knows  ?  The 
world  likes  men  who  know  how  to  mind  their  own  busi- 
ness. 

March  3,  1919. 

Norman  Angell  was  propped  up  in  bed  in  his  room 
at  the  Hotel  Vouillemont,  just  around  the  corner  from 
the  Crillon,  when  I  looked  him  up  to-day.  He  was 
trying  to  intimidate  a  slight  attack  of  the  "  flu  "  with 
a  deluge  of  hot  tea. 

"Beats  all,"  commented  Mr.  Angell,  between  sips, 
"  how  my  friends  are  dying  right  and  left  of  the  '  flu.' 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  189 

Every  time  I  pick  up  a  paper  I  see  a  new  name." 

^'  Do  you  approve  the  covenant  of  the  League  of  Na- 
tions as  it  stands  ?  "  I  asked. 

'^  No,  I  don't.  It  is  a  league  of  governments,  not  of 
the  people.  Its  outstanding  weakness  is  that  it  does 
not  provide  adequate  representation  of  the  people  as 
distinct  from  the  governments.  Besides,  the  whole 
tendency  heretofore  has  been  to  separate  the  executive 
from  the  legislative  powers.  Within  the  nation  the 
cabinet  cannot  make  laws,  but  under  the  covenant  the 
delegates  of  a  cabinet  will  be  able  to  pass  most  far- 
reaching  laws." 

I  sat  down  on  the  edge  of  the  bed,  and  Mr.  Angell 
outlined  the  ideas  that  had  come  to  him. 

"  Sometimes  a  government  is  itself  merely  a  minor- 
ity, owing  to  the  political  defects  of  our  group  or  party 
systems,"  he  continued.  ^'  Prime  Minister  Lloyd 
George  has  a  majority  of  approximately  250  votes  in 
Parliament,  yet  under  an  equitable  system  he  would  not 
have  more  than  a  majority  of  twenty  or  thirty. 

'^  They  tell  us  that  all  the  political  groups  should  be 
represented  in  the  proposed  machinery  of  the  league. 
Until  this  is  done  the  whole  people  will  not  have  a 
voice  in  the  affairs  of  the  league. 

"  There  is  such  a  thing  as  equality  of  states,  and 
the  principle  is  a  valuable  one,  but  it  must  be  offset 
by  equality  of  peoples.  If  Nicaragua  as  a  state  has 
one  vote,  and  the  United  States  has  one,  and  we  leave 
it  at  that,  we  get  a  situation  which  is  preposterous.  But 
if  in  addition  to  the  chamber  of  states,  which  presum- 
ably the  body  of  delegates  will  be,  we  have  another 


190  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

chamber  representing  the  peoples  proportionally,  Amer- 
ica will  have  in  that  chamber  1,000  times  the  voting 
power  of  Nicaragua.  The  league  must  create  such  an 
assembly  of  representatives. 

"  The  same  situation  came  up  when  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton was  working  on  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  Each  of  the  thirteen  States  considered  itself 
a  sovereign  state  and  demanded  equal  representation, 
which  meant  giving  Rhode  Island  the  same  number 
of  representatives  as  New  York.  Hamilton  thereupon 
arranged  for  a  popular  chamber  which  should  be  made 
up  of  representatives  of  the  people,  and  so  added  to  the 
equality  of  States  the  equality  of  men. 

"  My  suggestion  is  in  effect  the  creation  of  an  ad- 
ditional body, —  an  assembly  of  representatives, —  and 
a  reduction  in  size  of  the  body  of  delegates.  You 
would  then  have  a  machine  corresponding  to  the  Amer- 
ican Federal  Government,  the  council  corresponding  to 
the  cabinet,  the  assembly  of  delegates  to  the  Senate,  and 
the  assembly  of  representatives  to  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. My  idea  is  that  this  latter  assembly  should 
suggest  legislation.  I  feel  that  the  membership  in  the 
assembly  of  delegates  should  be  decreased  in  number, 
and  a  house  of  representatives  added." 

March  17,  1919. 
The  peace  commissioners  are  up  pretty  late  these 
nights,  but  they  are  not  dancing  the  polonaise.  They 
are  fighting  against  time,  laboring  by  the  sweat  of  the 
brow  to  get  the  affairs  of  the  world  in  shipshape  order 
before  harassed  Europe  slips  into  bankruptcy. 


THE  F0UETEE:N'  points  191 

When  a  peace  commissioner  appears  at  a  social  gath- 
ering in  Paris  to-day  it  is  after  the  fish  has  been  served 
and  the  hosts  are  anxiously  wondering  whether  the 
guest's  chair  will  remain  unoccupied.  He  dashes  in, 
nibbles  at  a  bit  of  celery,  and  then  starts  reading  a 
speech  which  his  secretary  has  carefully  typed  —  per- 
haps written  —  for  him.  He  does  not  raise  a  glass  of 
brimming  champagne  and  shout,  ^'  Here 's  to  the 
ladies !  "  He  does  not  even  remain  to  find  out  whether 
his  speech  has  been  a  hit  or  a  flat  failure.  By  the  time 
the  international  row  over  his  remarks  starts  he  is  half- 
way down  the  staircase,  ready  to  deliver  another  speech 
at  another  dinner,  which  he  reaches  shortly  after  the 
meat  course. 

Take  the  typical  day  of  an  American  commissioner. 
He  rises  at  7 ;  gets  a  rub-down ;  breakfast  at  8  ;  reads  his 
mail  and  papers ;  dictates  to  his  secretary  at  9  ;  at  9  :30 
hears  a  plea  by  a  delegation  for  the  political  autonomy 
of  Tierra  del  Fuego;  at  9:35  he  hears  a  missionary  on 
religious  differences  at  the  Antarctic  circle ;  at  9 :40 
he  gets  a  memorial  for  the  suppression  of  the  ^^  Ber- 
liner Tageblatt  " ;  at  9 :45  he  listens  to  pleas  for  a 
loan  of  $20,000,000  for  making  sausages  out  of  the 
Thuringian  Forest ;  at  10  o'clock  he  meets  American 
newspaper  men,  and  categorically  denies  all  the  re- 
ports printed  in  the  French  newspapers.  He  is  then 
whisked  off  to  a  meeting  of  the  committee  on  the  ter- 
ritorial claims  of  Iceland,  followed  by  a  meeting  of  the 
committee  on  the  territorial  claims  of  Greenland.  As 
the  two  overlap,  he  goes  to  lunch  feeling  that  he  has 
started  another  civil  war.     In  the  afternoon  — 


192  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

When  Mr.  Wilson's  ship  left  America  the  delegates 
to  the  conference  began  to  speed  up,  and  they  have  been 
speeding  up  ever  since.  These  are  hard  days  for  the 
members  of  the  subordinate  committees.  One  day  they 
hear  the  ayes  and  the  next  day  the  noes.  The  argu- 
ments on  the  ethnographical,  ethnological,  and  geo- 
graphical character  of  the  Banat  of  Temesvar  or  some 
other  equally  exciting  place  pile  up.  Great  heaps  of 
books  are  brought  in,  and  gay  colored  maps  dazzle  the 
commissions'  eyes.  Experts  in  all  languages  parade 
their  vocabularies. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Council  of  Ten  has  most 
of  its  sittings  in  the  afternoon  after  the  commissioners 
have  partaken  of  the  hearty  six  or  eight  course  luncheon 
with  which  the  French  fight  off  famine  in  the  middle 
of  the  day,  it  is  no  wonder  that  its  members  like  to 
doze  now  and  then.  Of  course  they  do  not  really  get  a 
good  nap, —  just  a  sort  of  forty  winks, —  and  if  they 
did,  nobody  would  speak  about  it  for  fear  of  starting 
another  Balkan  war. 

*'  I  have  often  wondered  how  Secretary  Lansing 
kept  awake,"  said  the  Eight  Hon.  Arthur  James  Bal- 
four the  other  day.  ^^  Now  I  have  sat  next  to  him  and 
found  out.  He  draws  the  most  fascinating  pictures  im- 
aginable." 

"  No  doubt  about  it,"  commented  Henry  White. 
"  Secretary  Lansing  is  actually  an  artist.  He  draws 
heads  mostly,  and  they  are  fine.  He  has  a  humorous 
sense,  too.  After  the  meetings  the  attendants  gather 
up  all  his  works  of  art  and  file  them  away  along  with 


THE  FOUKTEEJSr  POINTS  193 

other  documents  of  the  conference  in  French  archives. 
His  drawings  keep  him  awake." 

**  I  am  sorry  that  I  have  not  an  accomplishment  of 
some  kind/'  said  another  commissioner.  ^^  I  must  con- 
fess that  I  have  had  a  hard  time  keeping  awake.  Yes- 
terday I  had  a  fine  chance  for  a  nap.  The  Zionists 
were  presenting  their  case,  with  which  I  am  fully  in 
sympathy.  One  of  their  number,  a  very  scholarly  man, 
gave  a  long  speech  in  Hebrew.  I  speak  English, 
French,  and  the  New  York  dialect,  but  my  Hebrew  has 
been  neglected.  So  I  dozed  off,  and  woke  up  when  the 
interpreter  started." 

'^  Who  interpreted  for  him  ?  "  asked  a  friend. 

^^  Well,  come  to  think  of  it,  the  speaker  himself  did," 
replied  the  commissioner. 


CHAPTER  XI 

How   Belgium   set   about   to   get   a  brand-new  parchment   for   a 
tattered  scrap  of  paper,  and  what  came  of  it. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  M.  Paul  Hymans,  minister  of 
foreign  affairs  for  Belgium,  as  he  arose  to  address  the 
Council  of  Ten,  "  there  is  a  little  matter  —  ahem  — 
which  appears  to  have  escaped  the  attention  of  the 
Peace  Conference.  I  refer  to  the  so-called  scrap  of 
paper." 

Thereupon  the  delegates,  who  had  grown  gray  since 
the  armistice,  turned  aside  from  their  labored  study  of 
the  ethnological  and  anthropological  conditions  in  the 
Banat  of  Temesvar,  and  scratched  their  heads.  The 
^'  scrap  of  paper  "  had  a  familiar  ring ;  there  was  some- 
thing about  the  phrase  that  sounded  like  ancient  his- 
tory, and  so  it  was,  for  it  antedated  the  League  of  Na- 
tions and  the  Fourteen  Points,  and  the  coming  of  the 
Prince  of  the  Hedjaz,  and  the  merry  war  between 
friends  in  Paris.  It  was  in  the  first  days  of  the  Great 
War  that  the  neutrality  of  Belgium  had  been  riddled 
like  a  sieve,  and  it  was  in  that  first  year  —  1914  —  that 
Bethmann  HoUweg,  chancellor  of  the  German  Empire, 
characterized  the  treaty  which  guaranteed  it  as  a  "  scrap 
of  paper." 

Never  before  was  a  treaty  defended  like  this,  with 
blood  and  treasure  and  unmeasured  sacrifice. 

194 


THE  FOURTEEN"  POINTS  195 

"Well,  now/^  said  the  men  who  sat  in  judgment  on 
a  world,  "  what  would  jou  have  us  do  about  it  ?  " 

"  Belgium  wants  a  new  treaty/'  said  M.  Hymans. 
"  The  arrangement  of  1839  failed  to  keep  us  out  of 
the  war.     Now  we  want  a  real  treaty  that  will." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  were  three  treaties  of  1839, 
and  originally  there  were  four.  To  go  back  to  ancient 
history,  these  four  treaties  were  signed  in  London  on 
April  19,  1839.  The  first  treaty  was  between  the  five 
great  powers  of  that  day  —  England,  France,  Russia, 
Prussia,  and  Austria  on  the  one  hand,  and  Belgium  on 
the  other;  the  second  between  these  five  powers  and 
the  Netherlands,  and  containing  virtually  identical 
clauses;  the  third  between  Belgium  and  the  Nether- 
lands. The  fourth  treaty  was  between  the  five  powers 
and  the  Germanic  Confederation,  and  did  not  bear  par- 
ticularly on  Belgium,  but  on  Luxemburg;  however,  it 
established  certain  precedents,  which  came  in  oppor- 
tunely in  1919.  This  treaty  became  inoperative  when 
the  confederation  dissolved  after  the  defeat  of  Austria 
by  Prussia  at  Sadowa  in  1866. 

Looking  backward,  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  treaties 
did  not  serve  their  purpose  fairly  well,  as  treaties  go; 
for  in  the  seventy-five  years  that  lie  between  1839  and 
1914  they  had  more  than  once  proved  the  barrier  to 
aggression  by  way  of  the  great  Belgian  plain.  And 
scares  there  had  been  a-plenty,  even  one  or  two  wars, 
notably  the  Franco-Prussian  War  of  1870,  which  might 
easily  have  led  to  a  violation  of  Belgian  territory  had 
the  bond  not  been  held  sacred  by  the  leaders  of  that  day. 
Yet  while  the  German  general  staff  planned  its  invasion 


196  THE  ADVEXTURES  OF 

of  France  by  way  of  Belgium,  the  German  diplomats 
protested  that  Germany  would  never  repudiate  the 
treaties.  Thus  as  late  as  1911,  when  it  was  reported 
that  Germany  meant  to  violate  Belgian  territory  when 
the  Dutch  scheme  to  fortify  Flushing  brought  about  a 
crisis,  Bethmann  Hollweg  informed  the  Belgian  ambas- 
sador at  Berlin  solemnly  that  Germany  had  no  intention 
of  disregarding  the  covenant.  And  again  in  1913, 
Jagow,  German  secretary  of  state  for  foreign  affairs,  de- 
clared :  ''  The  neutrality  of  Belgium  is  settled  by  in- 
ternational conventions,  which  Germany  is  resolved  to 
respect,"  and  Heeringen,  minister  for  war,  said: 
''  Germany  will  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  neu- 
trality of  Belgium  is  guaranteed  by  international 
treaties."  There  could  be  no  question  that  Germany 
properly  and  publicly  acknowledged  that  the  German 
Empire  was  the  rightful  successor  to  the  obligations  of 
Prussia  and  was  bound  by  Prussia's  signatures  to  the 
treaties  of  1839. 

Xow  came  a  delicate  point:  the  conference  had  met 
to  make  peace  with  Germany,  not  to  meddle  with  the 
affairs  of  neutral  nations.  And  the  Netherlands  was 
a  neutral  nation,  yet  involved  in  the  Belgian  treaties. 
Was  the  conference  empowered  to  take  up  with  the 
Netherlands  the  discussion  of  the  treaties  ?  M.  Hy- 
mans  contended  that  it  was.  Moreover,  here  was  a 
wonderful  opportunity  for  the  Netherlands  to  set  her- 
self right  before  the  world,  for  the  treaties  of  1839  had 
been  forced  down  the  throat  of  the  new  Belgian  king- 
dom, then  just  liberated  from  Dutch  rule,  and  the  con- 
ditions they  imposed  were  such  as  to  help  stifle  the  eco- 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  197 

nomic  life  of  Belgium  and  give  extraordinary  advan- 
tages to  the  Netherlands.  M.  Hymans  had  visualized 
this  opportunity  as  well  as  any  one.  The  scrap  of  pa- 
per had  been  torn  up,  and  Belgium  needed  a  new  piece 
of  parchment  to  guarantee  her  position  in  Europe. 
Alone  she  could  not  hope  to  wring  concessions  from  the 
Netherlands;  but  backed  by  the  Allies,  it  would  be  a 
different  matter.  The  Central  powers  no  longer  counted 
in  diplomatic  intercourse.  With  pressure  brought  to 
bear  on  her,  the  Netherlands  could  not  properly  resist. 

M.  Hymans  made  his  plea  before  the  Council  of  Ten 
on  February  11.  The  council  turned  the  matter  over 
to  a  commission  of  two  delegates  from  each  of  the  five 
great  powers,  under  M.  Andre  Tardieu,  to  determine 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Peace  Conference.  M.  Tardieu 
reported  on  March  8.  His  report  dwelt  on  three 
points :  first,  that  the  treaties  must  be  revised ;  secondly, 
that  they  could  not  be  separated,  and  must  be  revised 
as  a  whole;  thirdly,  that  nations  not  originally  signa- 
tories might  take  part  in  the  revision.  His  report  set 
forth  that  "  the  three  treaties  negotiated  against  Bel- 
gium and  imposed  upon  her  and  the  Netherlands  by  the 
great  powers  have  furnished  to  Belgium  none  of  the 
guarantees  which  they  had  promised  her,  have  seriously 
diminished  by  their  territorial  and  fluvial  articles  her 
possibilities  of  defense,  and  are  largely  responsible  for 
the  prejudice  she  has  suffered." 

Here  comes  the  part  played  by  the  precedents  estab- 
lished by  the  obsolete  treaty  with  the  Germanic  Con- 
federation. After  the  defeat  of  Austria  at  Sadowa  by 
Prussia  in  1866,  the  Germanic  Confederation  was  dis- 


198  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

solved,  and  a  contention  over  Luxemburg  arose  between 
Prussia  and  France  wliicli  might  easily  have  led  to  war. 
The  King  of  the  Xetherlands,  who  was  also  Grand  Duke 
of  Luxemburg,  a  title  conferred  by  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  when  it  gave  Luxemburg  to  the  house  of  Orange, 
called  a  conference  of  all  the  powers  signatory  to  the 
treaties  of  1839  to  revise  them,  and  this  met  in  London 
on  May  7,  1867.  Baron  Bentinck,  speaking  for  the 
king  at  that  meeting,  considered  the  four  treaties  as  a 
whole,  although  only  one  was  in  question.  At  the  same 
time  Italy  was  invited  to  take  part  in  the  conference, 
and  was  welcomed  by  the  Netherlands,  although  Italy 
was  not  a  party  to  the  treaties.  This  established  the 
precedents  for  the  action  of  1919. 

The  members  of  the  American  mission  did  not  all 
agree  to  this  at  first,  and  I  recall  a  conversation  with 
one  of  them  in  which  he  said  that  revision  of  the  treaties 
might  properly  be  undertaken  by  a  commission  not  re- 
lated to  the  Peace  Conference,  or  made  later  when  the 
League  of  Nations  became  operative ;  but  that  the  con- 
ference was  concerned  primarily  with  the  terms  of  peace. 
But  America  had  a  special  interest  in  Belgium,  for  the 
seventh  of  the  Fourteen  Points  read  in  a  clear,  explicit 
language :  "  Belgium,  the  whole  world  will  agree,  must 
be  evacuated  and  restored,  without  any  attempt  to  limit 
the  sovereignty  which  she  enjoys  in  common  with  all 
other  free  nations.  No  other  single  act  will  serve  as 
this  will  serve,  to  restore  confidence  among  the  nations 
in  the  laws  which  they  have  themselves  set  and  de- 
termined for  the  government  of  their  relations  with  one 
another.     Without  this  healing  act  the  whole  structure 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  199 

and  validity  of  international  law  is  forever  impaired." 
On  the  strength  of  this  declaration  America  might  well 
support  the  Tardieu  report,  which  it  did. 

M.  Hymans  is  an  astute  diplomat,  a  most  clever 
statesman.  When  he  first  came  before  the  Council  of 
Ten  he  did  not  formulate  any  claims,  but  he  merely  ex- 
plained the  situation  that  confronted  Belgium.  He 
spoke  of  the  need  for  better  guaranties  of  the  independ- 
ence of  Belgium ;  of  the  inconveniences  to  Belgian  com- 
merce by  the  present  regulation  of  the  Scheldt  (Escaut) 
and  the  Terneuzen  Canal;  of  the  need  of  combining 
Antwerp  with  the  Mouse  and  the  Rhine ;  of  the  Belgian 
desire  for  certain  cantons  which  had  been  joined  to 
Prussian  provinces  by  the  Congress  of  Vienna ;  and  of 
Belgian  aspirations  to  some  sort  of  political  or  eco- 
nomic understanding  with  Luxemburg.  What  he  said 
was  sufficient  to  cause  general  consternation  and  unrest 
in  the  Netherlands.  The  Dutch  press  immediately  ac- 
cused the  Belgians  of  imperialistic  ideas,  of  aspiring  to 
the  rights  and  territories  of  a  neutral  nation,  and  al- 
though some  of  these  charges  were  justified  by  what  ap- 
peared in  the  newspapers  of  Belgium,  the  Dutch  atti- 
tude was  not  entirely  called  for,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  Netherlands  had  been  largely  benefited  by  the 
dubious  treaties  of  1839.  The  Dutch  Government, 
however,  on  February  18  sent  a  memorandum  to  Brus- 
sels, asking  that  the  Belgian  Government  communicate 
to  the  Netherlands  the  claims  affecting  Holland  which 
M.  Hymans  had  placed  before  the  conference. 

The  Council  of  Ten  adopted  the  Tardieu  report  and 
sent  an  invitation  to  the  Netherlands  to  attend  a  con- 


200  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

ference  on  the  treaties.  The  Xetherlands  agreed  to 
appoint  delegates  ^'  to  make  known  its  point  of  view 
with  regard  to  revision."  The  council  then  appointed  a 
commission  composed  of  the  ministers  of  foreign  affairs 
of  the  five  great  powers  —  in  the  case  of  the  United 
States,  the  secretary  of  state  —  and  representatives  of 
Belgium  and  the  Xetherlands.  This  body  held  three 
meetings,  on  May  19  and  20  and  June  3. 

At  the  first  session  M.  H^Tuans  presented  Belgium's 
case.  This  statement  gives  so  clearly  an  understanding 
of  the  needs  of  modern  Belgium  that  I  may  be  pardoned 
here  for  going  into  the  subject  at  length,  and  for  sup- 
plementing M.  Hyman's  argument  with  information 
that  I  gathered  in  the  course  of  a  visit  to  Belgium  a  few 
weeks  before  this  meeting  took  place  in  Paris.  Bel- 
gium will  always  occupy  a  position  of  importance  in 
European  politics;  for  hundreds  of  years  its  develop- 
ment has  been  dominated  by  strategic  and  economic  con- 
siderations, and  one  power  after  another  has  attempted 
to  make  them  serve  its  ends.  Belgium  has  suffered 
greatly  in  the  war,  but  the  world  is  concerned  chiefly 
with  her  reestablishment  and  restoration,  and  has  little 
idea  of  the  problems  that  Belgium  must  solve  if  she 
would  again  become  a  prosperous  industrial  and  agri- 
cultural state. 

M.  II^yTnans  first  set  forth  that  the  Scheldt  was  really 
a  Belgian  river  because  it  served  only  Belgian  inter- 
ests. On  the  Scheldt  depends  the  prosperity  of  Ant- 
werp and  the  whole  country.  The  arrangement  of 
1839  placed  the  administration  of  the  river  under  the 
joint   surveillance   of   the   Netherlands    and   Belgium, 


THE  rOURTEEISr  POINTS  201 

which  caused  the  upkeep  of  the  river  to  depend  on  the 
consent  of  the  Netherlands,  which  is  the  sovereign 
over  the  lower  Scheldt,  and  whose  ports  are  rivals  of 
Antwerp.  Belgium  wishes  the  power  to  administer  the 
river,  to  make  all  the  necessary  improvements  without 
any  one's  consent,  in  order  to  serve  the  needs  of  com- 
merce. Belgium  claims  the  free  disposal  of  the  river 
in  war  and  peace,  and  sovereignty  over  the  Scheldt,  its 
dependencies,  and  the  canal  of  Terneuzen,  which  unites 
Ghent  with  the  sea. 

The  story  of  the  port  of  Antwerp  is  the  story  of  a 
fight  against  tremendous  odds.  Time  and  again  inter- 
ested nations  have  damaged  its  prosperity,  although  it 
is  the  natural  port  for  the  Continent.  It  has  been  re- 
stricted for  the  benefit  of  France,  the  Netherlands,  and 
Germany.  At  one  time  it  was  closed  altogether.  But 
time  and  again  its  merchants  have  argued  its  cause,  and 
at  last  they  have  been  granted  a  hearing.  The  demands 
of  the  chamber  of  commerce  of  Antwerp,  made  early  in 
1919,  may  be  interesting  in  this  connection:  first,  the 
suppression  by  France  of  all  surtaxes  imposed  on  all 
merchandise  destined  for  France  which  enters  by  way 
of  Antwerp;  second,  the  annexation  of  the  Maestricht 
district  of  the  Netherlands  in  order  to  liberate  the  nav- 
igation between  Antwerp  and  the  Liege  basin  from  for- 
eign control ;  third,  the  construction  of  a  canal  from  the 
Rhine  to  Antwerp,  costs  for  which  were  to  be  partly 
assessed  against  Germany;  fourth,  the  construction  of 
this  canal  across  the  Limburg  district  of  the  Nether- 
lands to  connect  the  Rhine  and  Antwerp;  fifth,  full 
control  over  the  Scheldt. 


202  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

M.  Hymans  presented  the  following  summary  of  the 
Belgian  demands  on  the  subject  of  the  Scheldt  and 
other  waters: 

1.  The  relation  to  the  western  Scheldt  and  the  prob- 
lems connected  therewith : 

(a)  The  free  disposal  of  the  access  to  the  sea  along 
the  Scheldt;  that  is,  the  rights  of  sovereignty  over  the 
whole  course  of  the  western  Scheldt  between  the  sea- 
dikes  or  subordinate  dikes,  and  as  far  as  the  open  sea ; 
besides  over  all  waters  belonging  to  the  western  Scheldt ; 
also  over  the  canal  and  railway  from  Ghent  to  Ter- 
neuzen,  and  also  over  the  mouth  of  the  canal,  where 
it  discharges  into  the  western  Scheldt. 

(b)  The  recognition  by  the  Netherlands  of  the  neces- 
sity for  Belgium,  for  the  defense  of  her  territory,  of 
supporting  herself  on  the  lower  Scheldt  over  its  whole 
course,  and  of  the  right  to  make  use  of  this  river  with 
full  freedom  and  at  all  times  for  her  defense,  which 
carries  with  it  the  consequence  that  the  Netherlands 
should  renounce  all  military  measures  which  might  in- 
terfere in  the  exercise  of  this  right  by  Belgium. 

(c)  The  control  by  Belgium  of  the  locks  serving  for 
the  draining  of  Elanders. 

(d)  The  redressing  of  the  grievances  of  the  Belgian 
fishermen  of  Bouchaute. 

2.  With  reference  to  the  waters  of  communication 
between  the  western  Scheldt  and  the  lower  Rhine,  es- 
pecially the  making  at  common  cost  of  a  canal  with  a 
large  vertical  section  from  Antwerp  to  Moerdyk  in  sub- 
stitution of  the  waterways  contemplated  by  the  treaties 
of  1839. 


THE  rOUETEEISr  POINTS  203 

3.  With  reference  to  Dutch  Limburg : 

(a)  The  establishment  in  southern  Limburg  of  a 
regime  which  shall  guarantee  Belgium  against  the  dan- 
gers to  her  safety  resulting  from  the  configuration  of 
this  region,  and  which  shall  give  to  Belgium  a  guaranty 
for  her  economic  interests,  which  are  prejudiced  by 
regulations  affecting  the  land  and  water  territory  of 
the  treaties  of  1839. 

(b)  A  waterway  with  a  large  vertical  section,  Ehine- 
Meuse-Scheldt. 

4.  With  reference  to  Bar-le-Duc  (also  known  as 
Baarle-Hertog  and  Baarle-Nassau) ;  an  arrangement 
putting  an  end  to  the  inconveniences  resulting  from  the 
present  intermingling  of  Belgian  and  Dutch  territory. 

M.  Hymans  said  that  the  prosperity  of  Antwerp  de- 
pends on  its  communications  with  the  Ehine  hinterland 
and  the  basin  of  the  Meuse.  These  communications 
meet  an  obstacle  in  Limburg,  which  was  separated  from 
Belgium  in  1839.  The  enclave  of  Maestricht  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Meuse  is  at  present  highly  detrimental 
to  Belgian  commerce.  Belgium  wanted  the  territory 
from  Maestricht  to  Ruremonde,  so  that  Belgian  vessels 
on  the  Meuse  may  pass  solely  through  Belgian  territory. 

The  prosperity  of  Ghent  is  connected  with  control  of 
its  outlet  to  the  sea  —  the  canal  of  Terncuzen,  which 
was  built  in  1827,  before  the  separation.  This  canal 
is  controlled  at  its  mouth  by  the  Netherlands,  and  here 
also  restrictive  measures  are  enforced,  making  the  ter- 
minal harbor  wholly  dependent  on  Holland.  While 
these  conferences  were  going  on,  a  group  of  Belgian 
engineers  who  had  been  associated  with  the  waterways 


204  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

of  Belgium  came  to  Paris  and  made  its  headquarters 
at  the  Hotel  Lotti,  the  seat  of  the  Belgian  delegation. 
They  gave  the  following  facts  about  the  canal:  it  is 
thirty-two  kilometers  in  length,  with  seventeen  kilo- 
meters in  Belgium  and  fifteen  in  Dutch  territory.  In 
Belgium  all  navigable  ports  have  channels  twenty-six 
meters  wide,  whereas  in  the  Netherlands  they  vary  from 
fifteen  to  twenty-six  meters.  At  Terneuzen  there  is 
only  a  depth  of  5.12  meters  at  low  water,  while  at  high 
water  only  vessels  with  a  maximum  draught  of  8.25 
meters  can  get  through.  The  canal  was  enlarged  in 
1895  and  1902,  both  times  after  years  of  obstruction 
by  the  Netherlands,  at  the  expense  of  Belgium  and  giv- 
ing the  most  unusual  concessions  to  the  Netherlands, 
such  as  the  right  to  close  the  locks  '^  whenever  the  Dutch 
Government  will  deem  it  useful  to  safeguard  Dutch  in- 
terests." By  order  of  the  Dutch  Government  vessels 
over  140  meters  long  and  7  meters  wide  and  drawing 
more  than  8  meters  are  forbidden  to  go  through  the 
new  lock  at  Terneuzen.  With  regard  to  fog-signals, 
guiding-lights,  speed  regulations,  etc.,  there  also  are 
difficulties  between  Holland  and  Belgium.  The  whole 
situation  discloses  the  most  amazing  misuse  of  its  nat- 
ural advantages  by  the  Netherlands  against  a  neutral 
nation  that  was  not  in  a  position  to  enforce  its  demands. 

Two  questions  were  posed  by  M.  Hymans,  for  consid- 
eration by  the  commission.      They  were: 

1.  Can  the  Meuse  line,  which  is  the  Belgian  first  line 
of  defense,  be  sufficiently  defended  and  held  under  the 
territorial  conditions  established  by  the  treaties  of  1839, 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  205 

which  have  notably  placed  the  city  of  Maestricht  in  the 
hands  of  the  ^Netherlands  ? 

2.  Can  the  Scheldt  line,  the  principal  line  of  defense 
for  Belgium  and  a  line  naturally  strong,  be  held  ef- 
fectively without  Belgium  having  to  support  her  de- 
fense upon  the  whole  course  of  the  river  ? 

The  Netherlands  was  represented  by  M.  van  Karne- 
beek,  the  Dutch  minister  of  foreign  affairs.  At  the  ses- 
sion of  June  3  he  presented  the  position  of  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  Netherlands  to  the  Belgian  demands. 
He  said  first  that  the  integrity  of  Dutch  land  and  wa- 
ter could  not  be  brought  into  question ;  second,  that  the 
separation  of  Belgium  and  the  Netherlands  could  not 
be  taken  up  anew  on  other  principles  than  those  con- 
tained in  the  treaties  of  1839 ;  third,  that  his  Govern- 
ment was  ready  to  examine  in  principle  the  points  af- 
fecting the  navigation  and  economic  interests  of  Bel- 
gium; finally,  that  the  Government  feels  that  the  mili- 
tary question  must  be  left  in  cadre  of  the  League  of 
Nations. 

On  June  3  the  French  minister  of  foreign  affairs, 
acting  for  his  colleagues  on  the  commission,  sent  the 
following  statement  to  the  Belgian  and  Dutch  repre- 
sentatives : 

The  powers,  who  have  recognized  the  necessity  of  a  revision  of 
the  treaties  of  1839,  entrust  to  a  commission  comprising  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  United  States  of  America,  the  British  Em- 
pire, France,  Italy,  Japan,  Belgium  and  the  Netherlands,  the 
task  of  studying  the  measures  which  must  result  from  the  revision, 
and  of  making  proposals  which  may  not  involve  transfer  of  ter- 
ritorial sovereignty  or  the  establishment  of  international  servi- 
tudes.    The  commission  will  invite  Belgium  and  the  Netherlands 


204  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

of  Belgium  came  to  Paris  and  made  its  headquarters 
at  the  Hotel  Lotti,  the  seat  of  the  Belgian  delegation. 
They  gave  the  following  facts  about  the  canal:  it  is 
thirty-two  kilometers  in  length,  with  seventeen  kilo- 
meters in  Belgium  and  fifteen  in  Dutch  territory.  In 
Belgium  all  navigable  ports  have  channels  twenty-six 
meters  wide,  whereas  in  the  Netherlands  they  vary  from 
fifteen  to  twenty-six  meters.  At  Terneuzen  there  is 
only  a  depth  of  5.12  meters  at  low  water,  while  at  high 
water  only  vessels  with  a  maximum  draught  of  8.25 
meters  can  get  through.  The  canal  was  enlarged  in 
1895  and  1002,  both  times  after  years  of  obstruction 
by  the  Netherlands,  at  the  expense  of  Belgium  and  giv- 
ing the  most  unusual  concessions  to  the  Netherlands, 
such  as  the  right  to  close  the  locks  ''  whenever  the  Dutch 
Government  wdll  deem  it  useful  to  safeguard  Dutch  in- 
terests." By  order  of  the  Dutch  Government  vessels 
over  140  meters  long  and  7  meters  wide  and  drawing 
more  than  8  meters  are  forbidden  to  go  through  the 
new  lock  at  Terneuzen.  With  regard  to  fog-signals, 
guiding-lights,  speed  regulations,  etc.,  there  also  are 
difficulties  between  Holland  and  Belgium.  The  whole 
situation  discloses  the  most  amazing  misuse  of  its  nat- 
ural advantages  by  the  Netherlands  against  a  neutral 
nation  that  was  not  in  a  position  to  enforce  its  demands. 

Two  questions  were  posed  by  M.  Hymans,  for  consid- 
eration by  the  commission.     They  were: 

1.  Can  the  Meuse  line,  which  is  the  Belgian  first  line 
of  defense,  be  sufficiently  defended  and  held  under  the 
territorial  conditions  established  by  the  treaties  of  1839, 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  205 

which  have  notably  placed  the  city  of  Maestricht  in  the 
hands  of  the  Netherlands  ? 

2.  Can  the  Scheldt  line,  the  principal  line  of  defense 
for  Belgium  and  a  line  naturally  strong,  be  held  ef- 
fectively without  Belgium  having  to  support  her  de- 
fense upon  the  whole  course  of  the  river  ? 

The  Netherlands  was  represented  by  M.  van  Karne- 
beek,  the  Dutch  minister  of  foreign  affairs.  At  the  ses- 
sion of  June  3  he  presented  the  position  of  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  Netherlands  to  the  Belgian  demands. 
He  said  first  that  the  integrity  of  Dutch  land  and  wa- 
ter could  not  be  brought  into  question ;  second,  that  the 
separation  of  Belgium  and  the  Netherlands  could  not 
be  taken  up  anew  on  other  principles  than  those  con- 
tained in  the  treaties  of  1839 ;  third,  that  his  Govern- 
ment was  ready  to  examine  in  principle  the  points  af- 
fecting the  navigation  and  economic  interests  of  Bel- 
gium; finally,  that  the  Government  feels  that  the  mili- 
tary question  must  be  left  in  cadre  of  the  League  of 
Nations. 

On  June  3  the  French  minister  of  foreign  affairs, 
acting  for  his  colleagues  on  the  commission,  sent  the 
following  statement  to  the  Belgian  and  Dutch  repre- 
sentatives : 

The  powers,  who  have  recognized  the  necessity  of  a  revision  of 
the  treaties  of  1839,  entrust  to  a  commission  comprising  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  United  States  of  America,  the  British  Em- 
pire, France,  Italy,  Japan,  Belgium  and  the  Netherlands,  the 
task  of  studying  the  measures  which  must  result  from  the  revision, 
and  of  making  proposals  which  may  not  involve  transfer  of  ter- 
ritorial sovereignty  or  the  establishment  of  international  servi- 
tudes.    The  commission  will  invite  Belgium  and  the  Netherlands 


208  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Wallonia,  or  Malmedy,  and  Moresnet,  a  neutral  terri- 
tory located  at  the  point  where  the  boundaries  of  the 
Netherlands,  Germany,  and  Belgium  meet.  The  an- 
nexation of  Prussian  Wallonia  was  advocated  by  the 
Walloons  of  Belgium  and  opposed  to  a  mild  extent  by 
the  Flemish  part  of  the  Belgian  population,  and  thereby 
hangs  a  long  story  which  touches  on  the  delicate  in- 
ternal situation  in  Belgium  itself  —  the  fight  between 
the  Flemings  and  the  Walloons  for  supremacy  in  this 
little  nation. 

When  the  Peace  Conference  was  considering  the  pro- 
posals of  Belgium,  Colonel  House  received  a  telegram 
from  a  so-called  Flemish  committee  of  The  Hague,  pur- 
porting to  act  in  the  name  of  ^^  the  oppressed  people  of 
Flanders,"  and  asking  him  to  bring  before  the  confer- 
ence the  position  of  the  Flemings  in  Belgium.  The  ar- 
guments advanced  by  this  committee  are  those  regularly 
heard  in  Flemish  circles  of  Belgium,  and  in  brief  are 
as  follows:  Belgium  is  divided  between  the  French- 
speaking  Walloons,  who  are  descendants  of  the  Ro- 
mans and  Belgse,  and  who  speak  French,  and  the  Flem- 
ings, who  are  Teutonic  and  speak  Flemish,  a  tongue 
very  similar  to  Dutch.  The  Flemings  assert  that  the 
French  element,  being  in  control  of  the  Government,  has 
used  its  power  to  advance  French  as  the  native  tongue, 
instead  of  Flemish,  and  has  virtually  shut  the  Flemings 
out  from  the  universities,  public  offices,  and  political 
life  when  they  do  not  speak  French.  It  is  understood 
that  the  Walloons  so  far  have  had  a  majority,  but  the 
Flemings  charge  that  these  figures  have  been  juggled 
and  that  in  reality  Belgium  is  preponderatingly  Flem- 


THE  FOURTEE:^r  POINTS  209 

ish,  and  that  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  soldiers  in  the  army 
were  Flemish,  but  were  commanded  in  the  French 
tongue.  The  Flemings  ask  autonomy  as  part  of  their 
movement  to  reestablish  Flemish  civilization  and  cul- 
ture ;  they  seek  a  federation  of  two  self-governing  parts 
of  Belgium,  with  Flemish  schools,  courts,  and  govern- 
ment offices  in  all  Flemish  districts,  and  the  regional 
system  in  the  army.  All  this  in  the  telegram  to  Colonel 
House. 

The  French-speaking  Government  of  Belgium  is  nat- 
urally opposed  to  this  program.     It  sets  forth  that  the 
Flemish  element  is  not  chronically  discontented,  but  is 
being  used  by  crafty  politicians  to  further  their  own 
ends.     Two  languages   in   the   army   are   opposed   by 
every  military  authority  who  has  observed  the  havoc 
wrought  by  this  system  in  old  Austria-Hungary.     It 
also  charges  that  to  stir  up  the  Flemish  people  is  the 
favorite  pastime  of  the   German  Government,   which 
plays  on  the  Teutonic  strain  and  thereby  hopes  at  length 
to  disrupt  Belgium  and  take  the  Flemish  districts,  in- 
cluding the  port  of  Antwerp.     There  is  no  doubt  that 
Germany  laid  the  foundation  for  exactly  that  sort  of 
policy  during  the  war  by  her  support  of  the  activist 
movement,  and  by  proclaiming  the  council  of  Flanders 
under  the  protection  of  German  bayonets  in  the  Alham- 
bra  Theater  in  Brussels  in  1918.     The  Germans  rein- 
stituted  a  Flemish  faculty  in  the  University  of  Ghent, 
and  opened  Flemish  normal  schools  at  Laeken  and  Uccle. 
The  better  element  of  Flemings,  however,  repulsed  the 
overtures  of  the  enemy.     The  fine  record  for  loyalty 
achieved  by  the  Flemish  soldiers  in  the  Belgian  Army 


210  THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS 

is  sufficient  to  prove  that  this  back-fire  availed  the  Ger- 
mans nothing.  A  recent  attempt  on  the  part  of  a  small 
Flemish  element  to  embarrass  the  Government  in  a  de- 
bate in  the  chamber  led  to  an  outright  government  vic- 
tory, and  indicated  that  the  country  was  well  satisfied 
with  the  cabinet  headed  by  M.  Delacroix,  which  includes 
such  able  men  as  M.  Hymans,  M.  Jules  Renkin,  and  M. 
Emile  Vandervelde,  perhaps  the  leading  representatives 
in  Belgium  respectively  of  the  liberal,  Catholic,  and  so- 
cialist parties. 

The  little  country  that  held  out  so  bravely  during  the 
war,  that  fought  so  doggedly  on  the  little  stretch  of 
sandy  plain  in  Flanders,  which  was  all  of  Belgium  that 
did  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  carried  on  its 
campaign  in  Paris  just  as  courageously  and  energet- 
ically, determined  to  win  at  all  costs  every  advantage 
which  would  further  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  this 
little  realm.  Technical  advisers,  lawanakers,  scientists, 
engineers,  diplomats  crowded  the  corridors  of  the  Hotel 
Lotti  on  the  Rue  Castiglione,  where  the  Belgian  colors 
hung  draped  over  the  arcades  and  where  soldiers  in  the 
khaki  of  the  Belgian  Army  stood  guard  day  and  night. 
Here  labored  MM.  Hymans,  Vandenheuvel,  and  Van- 
dervelde,  and  every  once  in  a  while  they  were  reen- 
forced  by  a  tall,  sandy-haired  youngish-looking  man  of 
erect  bearing  and  modest  address,  for  whom  the  sentinels 
clicked  a  salute  in  short  order.  It  was  Albert,  no  less  a 
diplomat  than  a  king. 


CHAPTEE  XII 

The  eighth  point  wins   a  splendid   victory,   and  then   comes   the 
Saar  basin,  and  the  whole  fourteen  suffer  an  eclipse. 

"  And  the  wrong  done  to  France  by  Prussia  in  1871 
and  the  matter  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  which  has  unsettled 
the  peace  of  the  world  for  nearly  fifty  years,  should  be 
righted." 

It  was  the  eighth  commandment  of  the  fourteen,  and 
it  was  running  through  my  head,  repeating  itself  over 
and  over,  as  our  train  glided  through  the  low-lying 
meadow-lands  of  the  Alsatian  foot-hills.  Again  and 
again  it  kept  time  to  the  click  of  the  rails  and  the 
thumping  of  the  trucks,  and  when  my  eye  traveled  up 
to  the  western  sky  and  followed  those  proud  hills, 
capped  with  a  coronet  of  battlemented  towers,  the 
thought  came  back  to  me  that  this  was  the  land  that 
France  had  gathered  back  into  the  fold  as  a  mother 
gathers  her  daughter  into  her  arms.  And  I  recalled 
what  Marshal  Joifre  had  said  to  the  little  girl  in  the 
quaint  Alsatian  costume: 

"  You  are  Alsace ;  I  am  Prance.  I  bring  you  the 
kiss  of  France." 

I  turned  to  a  member  of  the  French  official  party 
who  was  sitting  close  by,  gazing  out  of  the  car-window 
with  a  preoccupied  look.  He  was  a  fine  scholar,  a 
French  savant  who  had  traveled  much, 

211 


212  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

"  I  know  what  you  are  thinking  about,"  I  volun- 
teered ;  and  as  he  turned,  '^  about  Alsace." 

"  Yes,"  he  replied,  and  nodded  slowl}^ 

''  I  wonder  if  it  will  look  different  to  you  now  that 
it  has  become  French,"  I  said. 

'^  I  have  never  seen  Alsace,"  he  replied  quietly  and, 
I  thought,  somewhat  sadly ;  "  this  is  my  first  visit,  too. 
I  could  not  bear  to  come  here  then." 

His  answer  was  typical  of  the  feeling  in  the  hearts 
of  many  fine  Frenchmen,  for  few  had  the  heart  to  view 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  under  the  German  heel.  Many 
of  the  wounds  of  the  war  of  1870-11  had  healed  with 
the  passing  of  that  generation,  but  remembrance  did  not 
die  out.  There  were  ready  and  willing  hands,  it 
seemed,  to  keep  green  the  garlands  laid  at  the  base  of 
the  statue  of  Strasburg  in  the  Place  de  la  Concorde,  and 
before  the  memorial  to  Turenne  at  the  Invalidcs. 
There  were  writers,  too,  ready  to  plead  the  cause  of  the 
lost  provinces ;  not,  perhaps,  with  the  fire  and  spirit  of 
the  circle  that  gathered  in  the  salon  of  3,lmc.  Juliette 
Adam  as  the  nineteenth  century  drew  to  a  close,  but 
with  as  great  a  degree  of  devotion  and  zeal.  Alsace  and 
Lorraine  became  symbols  of  martyrdom.  When  the 
war  came,  the  old  wounds  opened  anew,  and  possession 
of  these  lands  became  the  cherished  war  aim  of  France. 
When  the  tricolor  flew  from  the  spire  of  the  cathedral 
of  Strasburg,  it  was  not  as  if  it  had  been  unfurled  over 
a  conquered  land ;  it  was  the  flag  of  the  mother-country, 
back  again  after  a  long  exile. 

Alsace  and  Lorraine  were  back  in  the  fold  now.  The 
wrong  that  had  been  done  to  France  had  been  righted, 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  213 

or  at  least  was  about  to  be  righted.  I  mentioned  the 
matter  to  my  French  friend. 

^'  The  return  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  was  one  of  the 
aims  for  which  France  fought/'  he  said,  ^'  and  it  was 
so  stated  in  the  Fourteen  Points  by  President  Wilson, 
which  were  agreed  to  by  the  Germans.  Although,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,"  he  added,  "  your  President's  statement 
was  a  bit  ambiguous." 

"  You  mean  with  regard  to  righting  the  wrong  ?  "  I 
asked. 

"  Exactly,"  he  replied.  ''  We  should  have  preferred 
the  plain  statement  that  the  provinces  shall  be  returned 
to  France.  Germany  is  even  now  saying  that  the  eighth 
point  does  not  rule  out  a  plebiscite,  and  is  making  capi- 
tal out  of  the  President's  stand  for  the  right  of  peo- 
ples to  choose  their  own  political  destiny." 

"  But  there  will  be  no  plebiscite  in  Alsace  and  Lor- 
raine ?  "  I  continued. 

"  Of  course  not.  We  have  never  acknowledged  that 
we  ever  relinquished  ownership  and  title.  We  merely 
gave  up  the  provinces  under  force  and  under  protest. 
So  we  are  not  obligated  either  by  a  written  word  or 
morally  to  put  the  matter  to  a  plebiscite  now.  And,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,"  he  added  as  he  looked  out  over  the 
roofs  and  towers  of  the  great  city  which  we  were  now 
entering,  "  I  am  rather  glad  that  we  do  not  have  to 
put  it  to  the  test." 

The  train  stopped  just  then  in  the  central  station  of 
Strasburg,  and  I  could  not  pursue  the  subject  farther. 
There  were  bags  to  be  looked  after,  and  raincoats  and 
umbrellas  to  be  produced,  for  we  were  landing  in  a 


214  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

mild,  drizzling  rain.  I  did  not  think  of  his  remark 
again  until  we  paraded  out  of  the  station  into  the  great 
square  beyond,  and  I  beheld  a  city  which  flew  the  tri- 
color and  yet  had  something  about  it  that  was  different 
from  any  French  city  I  had  ever  known;  in  which  even 
the  doors  and  the  window-frames  and  the  roofs  had  a 
distinctive  architecture,  and  where  the  lettering  of  the 
shopkeepers'  signs  was  in  a  new  kind  of  script,  and 
where  these  signs  frequently  displayed  names  that  had 
no  apparent  relation  to  the  newly  painted  "  maison 
frangaise  "  below  them.  I  caught  up  with  my  friend, 
who  was  going  forward  with  wide-open  eyes,  but  a 
closed  mouth,  taking  in  scenes  of  which  he  had  heard 
much,  but  which  he  had  never  seen. 

''  I  think  I  know  what  you  meant  back  there  in  the 
wagon/'  I  resumed.  "  You  meant  this,"  and  I  indi- 
cated the  sign-boards. 

"  They  were  here  close  to  forty-nine  years,"  he  re- 
plied almost  irrelevantly,  "  and  they  began  their  das- 
tardly work  almost  the  day  they  arrived  —  began  it  with 
the  conscious  plan  of  making  Alsace  and  Lorraine  a 
part  of  the  empire.  That 's  nearly  half  a  century. 
Pretty  long  —  too  long  when  the  ruler  is  one  who  never 
sleeps,  who  never  forgets  his  object,  who  has  eternally 
in  view  the  aim  of  uniting  these  lands  to  him  by  ties 
that  will  overcome  the  call  of  duty,  nationality,  religion, 
honor.  I  suppose  that  if  we  came  to  count  heads  now, 
we  would  find  a  mighty  lot  of  Germans  here.  And  yet 
that  would  not  be  justice.  Others  should  be  counted  — 
others  who  once  lived  here,  but  who  went  over  the 
Vosges  and  sought  new  homes  in  other  departments  of 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  215 

France.  And  then  there  are  the  dead,  who  were 
robbed  and  despoiled,  and  who  are  silent  now.  And 
yet  many  of  these  people  about  us  who  speak  German 
fluently,  and  their  own  Alsatian  patois,  at  heart  are  true 
to  France." 

There  was  much  wisdom  in  what  he  said.  Germany 
might  well  appeal  to  the  Peace  Conference  for  a  pleb- 
iscite in  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  for  there  was  always  the 
possibility  of  organizing  a  turbulent,  obstructive  mi- 
nority. The  Germans  had  exploited  these  lands,  had 
colonized  them,  had  Germanized  them.  The  dead  could 
not  vote,  or  the  exiled ;  only  the  living,  and  it  had  been 
nearly  fifty  years  since  the  provinces  were  torn  from 
the  side  of  France.  In  that  half-century  great  changes 
had  taken  place.  Alsace  and  Lorraine  had  been  agri- 
cultural provinces,  producing  wheat,  rye,  oats,  barley, 
potatoes,  roots,  and  vegetables.  In  1871  a  slight  ma- 
jority of  the  inhabitants  had  been  farmers,  and  now 
only  thirty  per  cent,  of  the  population  was  working 
the  farms.  Not  that  farming  had  retrogressed.  A 
great  industry  had  come  to  life  after  the  Germans  took 
possession ;  mines  had  been  developed,  great  waterways 
had  been  built,  mills  and  smelters  had  been  reared  and 
an  active  shipping  life  had  been  stimulated.  Stras- 
burg  had  become  one  of  the  great  inland  ports  of  the 
German  Empire.  In  1907,  out  of  1,820,249  inhabi- 
tants in  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  551,658,  or  30.3  per 
cent,  had  been  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits;  730,- 
952,  or  40.2  per  cent.,  in  mining  and  in  industries;  and 
221,953,  or  12.2  per  cent.,  in  commerce  or  trade.  Vir- 
tually the  whole  of  that  industrial  life  and  a  great  part 


21G  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

of  that  commerce  and  trade  had  been  built  up  by  Ger- 
mans, many  of  whom  had  immigrated  from  other  parts 
of  the  empire.  Most  of  the  railway  functionaries  were 
Germans,  for  the  lines  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  were  an 
integral  part  of  the  German  railway  system,  and  in 
their  great  mills  and  mines  the  owners  had  purposely 
favored  the  German  element. 

In  the  course  of  the  next  few  days  I  was  to  have  am- 
ple opportunity  to  see  what  a  wonderful  land  had  come 
back  to  France,  and  to  learn  what  changes  had  been 
wrought  here  in  the  years  of  German  tenancy.  Stras- 
burg  was  once  known  to  fame  as  the  city  of  the  great 
cathedral.  I  found  it  now  the  fourth  largest  port  on 
the  Rhine,  a  great  distributing-center  which  gave  oc- 
cupation to  thousands  of  merchants,  shippers,  and 
freight-handlers.  In  1913  the  gross  water  traffic  had 
been  just  a  little  less  than  2,000,000  tons.  The  Ger- 
mans had  attempted  to  regulate  the  shifting  sands  of 
the  Rhine;  they  had  called  a  harbor  out  of  the  little 
island  that  lies  in  the  stream  just  beyond  what  Stras- 
burg  calls  the  Little  Rhine;  in  fact,  two  great  har- 
bors had  been  cut  here,  lined  with  concrete  and  stone, 
and  provided  with  all  the  appurtenances  needed  to  serve 
an  extensive  carrying  trade,  such  as  a  municipal  ware- 
house with  a  capacity  of  160,000  sacks  of  grain;  an- 
other with  a  capacity  of  180,000  sacks,  and  leased  be- 
fore the  war  to  Mannheim  interests ;  granaries,  flour- 
mills,  and  factories.  The  supplies  that  came  into  these 
harbors  moved  over  all  the  inland  waterways  of  Ger- 
many, and  there  are  many.  They  passed  over  the 
Rhine-Marne  Canal,  famous  now  in  American  history 


THE  F0UETEE:N'  points  217 

as  the  waterway  where  the  Germans  first  found  Ameri- 
can soldiers;  over  the  Rhine  canal  to  Miilhouse  and 
Basel,  which,  when  extended,  will  reach  Marseilles. 
Heretofore  Strasbnrg  had  looked  eastward  for  commer- 
cial development,  and  there  had  been  immense  advan- 
tages in  trading  with  the  German  states,  and  disadvan- 
tages in  trading  with  France,  so  that  the  channels  of 
communication  to  the  west  had  been  neglected.  Now 
Strasbnrg  was  on  the  eve  of  another  commercial  de- 
velopment. The  waterways  to  the  west  were  to  be  en- 
larged and  extended;  France  would  endeavor  to  open 
up  trade  with  Switzerland,  and  perhaps  with  the  cen- 
tral European  lands,  and  would  try  to  make  Bordeaux, 
Nantes,  and  St.  Nazaire  the  ports  for  shipping  that  for 
years  had  entered  by  way  of  Antwerp  and  the  Dutch 
harbors.  French  engineers  also  had  laid  plans  for 
making  Brest,  Cherbourg,  and  Pallice  ports  of  the  first 
rank,  and  Professor  Hauser  of  Dijon  University  had 
outlined  a  scheme  for  the  canalization  of  the  upper 
Loire  and  the  construction  of  a  Raonne-Givors  canal, 
which  would  make  it  possible  to  convey  coal  from  the 
Loire  district,  and  American  goods  from  St.  Nazaire 
to  Geneva.  The  upper  Loire  could  connect  with  the 
Rhine  by  means  of  the  Loire  Canal,  Givors  and  the  Cen- 
tral and  Rhone  canals.  Strasburg  might  become  in  the 
near  future  a  great  distributing  center  for  American 
goods. 

Across  the  bridges  of  the  Rhine  we  whirled,  past  the 
spot  where  in  revolutionary  times  the  sentinel  of  France 
stood  with  his  musket  beside  the  sign-board  that  read, 
"  Ici  commence  le  Pays  de  la  Liberie/'     The  legend 


218  THE  ADVENTUBES  OF 

might  well  be  raised  again,  after  a  lapse  of  more  than 
a  hundred  years,  for  the  Rhine  was  once  again  the 
dividing-line  between  two  theories  of  government. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  Rhine  from  Strasburg,  in 
the  grand  duchv  of  Baden,  lies  Kehl.  Kehl  is  not  only 
a  port,  but  it  possesses  possibilities  of  development,  and 
while  it  may  not  divide  honors  with  Strasburg,  yet  in 
hostile  hands  it  may  become  a  strong  rival.  It  was  this 
subject  that  one  of  the  French  members  of  our  party 
touched  on  as  we  passed  through  this  town. 

"  We  cannot  properly  permit  a  rival  to  grow  up  be- 
side Strasburg  while  we  are  endeavoring  to  build  up 
new  means  of  communication  with  France,"  he  said. 
"  The  reason  is  obvious.  With  all  their  waterways  and 
railroads  centering  here,  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  for 
the  Germans  to  divert  all  their  Strasburg  trade  to  Kehl, 
and  so  rob  us  of  this  trade  before  we  had  an  opportunity 
to  develop  our  waterways  and  railroads.  It  would  ruin 
Strasburg  as  a  port.  So  we  are  going  to  propose  to 
the  Peace  Conference  that  Kehl  and  Strasburg  shall 
be  treated  as  a  unit  in  the  negotiations.  We  cannot  ask 
sovereignty  over  a  part  of  Baden,  but  we  can  ask  that 
Kehl  be  placed  under  the  commission  which  will  regu- 
late the  affairs  of  the  Rhine  under  the  treaty  of  peace. 
What  do  you  think  the  Peace  Conference  will  do  about 
it?" 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  what  my  French  friend  meant  to 
ask  was,  what  the  American  mission  meant  to  do  about 
it,  for  he  knew  perfectly  well  that  under  the  European 
political  code  the  mere  inclusion  of  a  few  Germans 
more  or  less  in  French  territory  meant  nothing.     But 


THE  FOURTEEN  POIKTS  219 

President  Wilson  stood  for  the  rights  of  nationalities 
and  had  distinctly  declared  himself  against  annexation 
of  what  was  obviously  foreign  territory,  and  the  atti- 
tude the  Americans  might  take  in  the  light  of  these 
pronouncements  was  what  disconcerted  our  associates. 
Moreover,  Mr.  Henry  White,  the  American  representa- 
tive on  the  commission  on  ports,  waterways,  and  rail- 
ways had  not  proved  so  amenable  to  the  wishes  of  some 
of  our  Allies  with  regard  to  regulation  of  German  wa- 
terways as  they  had  hoped,  and  there  was  a  feeling  that 
Belgium  and  France  might  not  gain  all  the  economic 
advantages  they  expected  to  get  now  that  Germany  lay 
prostrate.  The  subject  of  Kehl  was,  nevertheless,  a 
moot  point;  my  friend  had  stated  the  case  exactly,  and 
it  turned  out  later  that  the  commission  on  waterways 
had  been  led  to  accept  this  view,  for  an  examination  of 
the  treaty  of  peace  discloses  that  Article  65,  under  Sec- 
tion V,  which  relates  to  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  stipulates 
that  for  seven  years  the  ports  of  Kehl  and  Strasburg 
shall  be  treated  as  a  unit,  administered  by  a  manager 
appointed  by  the  Central  Rhine  commission,  who  shall 
be  French ;  all  property  rights  being  safeguarded ;  equal- 
ity of  treatment  of  the  nationals  of  both  countries  be- 
ing provided  for,  and  the  reservation  made  that  in  the 
event  France  does  not  find  seven  years  sufficient  for  de- 
veloping her  port,  she  may  ask  for  an  extension  of 
time  not  to  succeed  three  years. 

If  the  possession  of  Strasburg  meant  a  new  impetus 
to  the  development  of  waterways  in  France,  the  return 
of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  meant  no  less  to  the  railway 
systems  of  France.     These  too  needed  devolopment  to 


220  THE  ADVE:NrTURES  OF 

satisfy  the  French  needs  for  communications.  At  the 
time  of  the  armistice  there  were  2,69-i  miles  of  railways 
in  the  two  provinces,  employing  11,786  officials  and 
employees  with  rank,  1,984  minor  employees  and  18,- 
338  laborers,  with  a  rolling  stock  that  included  1,131 
locomotives,  2,281  passenger-carriages,  and  27,955 
freight-cars.  The  roads  were  operated  successfully, — 
there  was  a  profit  in  1918  of  $12,710,155, —  but  rail- 
way connections  with  France  left  much  to  be  desired. 
Until  1914  there  were  only  two  lines  across  the  Vosges, 
for  military  reasons ;  in  the  south  the  line  running  from 
Paris  to  Mulhouse  by  the  Valdieu  gap,  and  in  the  north 
the  line  from  Paris  to  Strasburg  through  the  cut  at 
Saverne.  Four  lines,  however,  ran  into  French  Lor- 
raine: the  line  from  Nancy  to  Chateau-Salins,  that 
from  Nancy  to  Metz,  that  from  Verdun  to  Metz,  and 
that  from  Mezieres  to  Thionville.  France  had  now  be- 
gun to  build  a  line  from  Saint-Die  to  Saales  with  mili- 
tary labor,  crossing  the  Meurthe  near  the  Saint-Die  sta- 
tion, following  the  valley  of  the  Fave,  and  at  the  Saale 
pass  joining  the  railway  line  which  connects  this  dis- 
trict with  Strasburg.  A  second  line  will  connect  . 
Epinal  with  St.-Maurice  in  the  upper  valley  of  the 
Moselle.  This  line  will  establish  direct  connection  be- 
tween the  industrial  centers  of  the  Moselle  valley,  in- 
cluding Thaon,  Epinal,  and  Rupt,  and  those  of  the  val- 
ley of  Wesserling  and  Mulhouse,  and  will  make  possible 
a  direct  line  from  Antwerp  to  Milan.  It  will  cost  50,- 
000,000  francs  to  build.  Leaving  St.-Maurice,  it  will 
pass  through  the  Tete  des  Neuf  Bois  by  a  tunnel  to  the 
valley  of  Urbes,  pass  to  Pont  Rouge  la  Thlir  and  south 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  221 

of  the  Felleringen  to  Wesserling.  A  third  line  will  run 
across  the  central  Vosges,  connecting  the  middle  of  Al- 
sace with  the  eastern  departments  of  France.  It  will 
mean  a  connection  between  St.-Die  and  Ste. -Marie  aux 
Mines,  joining  St.-Die,  l^ancy,  Epinal,  and  Ste.-Marie 
Schlestadt,  Benfeld,  and  Colmar.  It  will  require  only- 
one  tunnel,  and  will  shorten  the  distance  between  Nancy 
and  Colmar  by  rail  from  198  to  126  kilometers.  This 
gives  direct  access  to  the  woolen-  and  cotton-spinning 
and  weaving  region.  Another  development  is  the  like- 
lihood of  connecting  certain  railway  lines  in  Alsace  and 
Lorraine  in  the  near  future,  to  give  a  direct  line  to 
Prague,  which  is  needed  if  Czecho-Slovakia  is  to  be 
kept  within  the  Entente  sphere  of  influence.  French 
engineers  may  soon  be  working  at  this  scheme  in  Bo- 
hemia, where  about  fifty  kilometers  of  railway  will  have 
to  be  constructed  to  make  the  dream  a  fact. 

The  imperial  German  emblems  were  still  on  the 
bridge  across  the  Ehine  at  this  strategic  point,  and  the 
approach  was  encumbered  by  the  remains  of  a  barri- 
cade that  had  been  hurriedly  erected  in  the  last  days 
of  the  Great  War.  My  French  friend  spoke  of  the  em- 
blems as  we  returned  to  Strasburg. 

"  They  are  coming  down  in  a  few  days,"  he  said. 
^'  The  municipal  council  has  decided  to  replace  them 
with  reliefs  of  Professors  Kuss  and  Arnold,  two  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty  of  our  old  University  of  Strasburg, 
who  were  persecuted  for  their  political  views  in  1871." 

It  was  typical  of  the  French  that  they  had  been  in 
no  hurry  to  remove  the  imperial  emblems.  Alsace  and 
Lorraine  were  French  again,  and  the  mere  fact  that 


222  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

there  was  a  German  emblem  here  and  there  did  not  ap- 
pear of  consequence.  Quietly,  but  thoroughly,  the 
French  went  forward  to  make  the  provinces  an  integral 
part  of  France.  The  French  showed  no  hesitation 
about  removing  Germans  from  important  places  of  trust 
and  in  loosening  the  German  grip  on  the  trade  of  the 
region;  but  an  eagle  or  two,  even  a  harmless  painting, 
might  remain.  Thus  in  one  of  the  great  rooms  of  the 
governor's  palace  I  viewed  the  life-sized  paintings  of  the 
Hohenzollerns, —  William,  the  former  empress,  and  the 
former  crown  prince, —  and  it  was  M.  Maringer  him- 
self, then  high  commissioner,  who  drew  back  the  hang- 
ings that  covered  them  and  laughingly  exhibited  them. 
Xo  one  had  damaged  the  paintings;  the  French  were 
satisfied  to  give  them  a  generous  ''  booing."  They  were 
subjects  for  laughter  now,  and  as  to  what  became  of  the 
pictures,  the  French  did  n't  care  — ''  ga  ne  fait  rien." 
When,  later  on,  we  ate  from  the  imperial  plate  and 
raised  high  the  imperial  goblets,  it  did  not  matter  that 
they  bore  the  Prussian  eagle  so  long  as  we  toasted  the 
future  of  France. 

M.  Maringer  supervised  the  preliminary  steps  of  the 
civil  administration,  and  then  gave  the  reins  to  M.  Alex- 
andre Millerand,  a  man  from  whom  France  expected 
much,  ^rillerand  was  one  of  the  big  men  of  France, 
but  for  the  last  few  years  he  had  been  in  eclipse.  He 
was  minister  of  war  in  the  cabinet  of  Viviani,  and  served 
until  October  29,  1915,  when  he  was  followed  by  Gen- 
eral Gallieni  under  the  Briand  ministry.  M.  Millerand 
is  a  socialist,  but  in  the  United  States  he  would  be  re- 
garded as  a  progressive.     At  one  time  he  collaborated 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  223 

with  M.  Clemenceau  on  the  newspaper  ''  La  Justice/' 
Differences  in  politics  caused  the  two  men  to  become 
alienated,  but  when  M.  Clemenceau  was  felled  by  an 
assassin's  bullet,  M.  Millerand  hurried  to  his  bedside, 
and  his  visit  did  the  president  of  the  council  a  world 
of  good,  and  led  to  his  appointment  as  commissioner- 
general  for  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  with  the  status  of  a 
minister  in  the  cabinet  of  France.  According  to  the 
statute  under  which  he  worked  he  took  charge  under 
the  direct  authority  of  the  president  of  the  council,  to 
supervise  the  general  administration  of  affairs  in  Al- 
sace and  Lorraine  and  to  make  the  seat  of  his  govern- 
ment at  Strasburg,  with  three  commissioners  under  him, 
one  at  Strasburg  for  lower  Alsace ;  one  at  Colmar  for 
upper  Alsace,  and  one  at  Metz  for  Lorraine. 

M.  Millerand  did  not  find  the  incorporation  of  Al- 
sace and  Lorraine  into  France  an  easy  task.  Tre- 
mendous difficulties  stood  in  the  way.  The  Germans  in 
the  industries  and  in  the  railways  sought  to  hamper  the 
work  of  the  French  administration  by  underground 
methods,  strikes,  and  sabotage.  The  Government  of 
the  republic  soon  organized  the  administration  of  Al- 
sace and  Lorraine  under  the  superior  council,  which 
had  M.  Millerand  at  its  head  and  M.  Louis  Barthou  as 
vice-president,  and  was  composed  of  thirty-two  mem- 
bers, of  whom  eleven  were  French,  and  twenty-one  resi- 
dents of  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  Among  the  members 
were  such  well-known  leaders  as  Lucien  Poincare,  vice- 
rector  of  the  University  of  Paris;  Albert  Thomas; 
Daniel  Blumenthal,  the  former  mayor  of  Colmar,  and 
the  Abbe  Wetterle.     This  council  was  to  take  up  all 


224  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

questions  of  a  general  nature  submitted  to  it  by  the 
commissioner,  and  later  studied  such  matters  as  the 
disposition  of  German  property  in  Alsace  and  Lorraine, 
making  provision  for  the  University  of  Strasburg, 
the  new  railway  lines  through  the  Vosges,  the  eight- 
hour  day,  and  financial  matters  of  various  kinds. 

The  French  authorities  made  a  survey  of  the  popula- 
tion of  the  two  provinces,  and  divided  the  people  into 
four  categories,  giving  them  cards  as  follows:  A.  All 
inhabitants  of  French  nationality  with  a  French  ances- 
try antedating  1840 ;  B.  All  inhabitants  who  were  the 
issue  of  a  mixed  marriage ;  that  is,  an  Alsatian  or  a  Lor- 
rainer  married  to  a  German;  C.  All  inhabitants  who 
are  the  nationals  of  an  allied  or  neutral  country ;  D.  All 
inhabitants  who  are  German  immigrants.  The  result 
showed  fifty-nine  per  cent,  of  the  population  belong- 
ing to  the  first  class;  ten  per  cent,  to  the  second 
class;  three  per  cent,  to  the  third  class,  and  twenty- 
eight  per  cent,  to  the  fourth  class.  It  was  then  esti- 
mated that  the  number  of  immigrants  in  Alsace  and 
Lorraine  reached  480,000,  which  was  considerably  less 
than  had  resided  there  before  the  war,  as  many  of  them 
had  served  in  the  German  Army  and  had  not  returned, 
and  others  had  departed  since  the  armistice. 

France  early  endeavored  to  ''  right  the  wrong  "  that 
had  been  done  to  the  original  French  inhabitants  of  Al- 
sace and  Lorraine  when  the  treaty  with  Prussia  in  1871 
deprived  them  of  their  motherland.  The  terms  of  that 
document  had  been  simple,  but  drastic.  I  recall  two 
clauses  which  Bismarck  forced  upon  M.  Thiers  and  M. 
Favre,  and  which  were  ratified  by  the  national  assembly 


Photograph  by  Signal  Corps,  U.  S.  A. 

THE  FIRST  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  PARIS 

President  Wilson  is  greeted  with  military  honors  by  the  Guard  as  he  leaves  the  French  Academy 

with  Mrs.  Wilson  on  December  19,  1918,  after  attending  the  reception  to  Academician  Joffre. 

In  the  foreground  is  M.  William  Martin,  chef  du  protocol 


THE  FOUKTEE:^  points  225 

at  Bordeaux.  The  first  completed  the  annexation: 
'^  France  renounces  in  favor  of  the  German  Empire  the 
following  rights:  A  fifth  part  of  Lorraine,  including 
Metz  and  Thionville,  and  Alsace  less  Belfort.'^  Then 
the  fifth  clause,  which  read :  "  A  delay  will  he  granted 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  territories  annexed  to  choose 
between  the  two  nationalities."  In  that  simple  phrase- 
ology lies  a  story  of  suffering,  of  untold  grief,  a  tragedy 
of  broken  hearts. 

To  restore  French  nationality  to  the  Alsatians  and 
the  Lorrainers  was  more  complicated.  Plans  were 
drawn  up  by  which  justice  should  be  done  those  who  had 
been  forced  to  become  Germans  before  the  law.  These 
plans  were  presented  to  the  Peace  Conference,  and  sub- 
sequently incorporated  in  the  treaty  of  peace.  The  fol- 
lowing provisions  were  made  and  incorporated  in  the 
annex  to  the  section  of  the  treaty  of  peace  that  deals 
with  the  status  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine :  reinstated  into 
full  French  citizenship  and  nationality  as  dating  from 
November  11,  1918,  were  all  who  lost  French  national- 
ity by  the  application  of  the  Franco-German  treaty  of 
May  10,  1871,  and  who  since  that  time  have  not  ac- 
quired any  other  nationality  than  German;  the  legiti- 
mate or  natural  descendants  of  these  persons,  except  for 
those  whose  ancestors  in  the  paternal  line  include  a 
German  who  migrated  to  Alsace  and  Lorraine  after 
July  15,  1870,  the  date  of  the  German  occupation,  and 
all  persons  born  in  the  provinces  of  unkno^vn  parents 
or  whose  nationality  is  unknown.  Within  one  year 
after  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  of  peace  French  na- 
tionality might  be  claimed  by  all  persons  whose  ascend- 


226  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

ants  include  a  Erenchman  or  a  Frenchwoman  who  lost 
his  or  her  nationality  by  the  German  occupation;  all 
foreigners  not  Germans  who  became  citizens  of  Alsace 
and  Lorraine  before  August  3,  1914;  all  Germans  who 
live  there  now  and  lived  there  before  July  15,  1870,  or 
one  of  w^hose  ascendants  was  living  there  at  that  time ; 
all  Germans  who  served  in  the  armies  of  the  allied  and 
associated  powers  during  the  late  war  and  their  descend- 
ants; all  persons  born  in  Alsace  and  Lorraine  before 
May  10,  1871,  of  foreign  parents,  and  the  descendants 
of  these  persons,  and  the  husband  or  wife  of  any  per- 
son whose  nationality  has  been  restored  as  from  Xo- 
vember  11,  1918.  Germans  are  not  to  be  given  French 
nationality  even  if  they  are  citizens  of  Alsace  and  Lor- 
raine, except  by  naturalization  if  they  lived  in  these 
regions  before  August  3,  1914,  and  will  have  resided 
there  continuously  for  three  years  after  November  11, 
1918. 

In  Alsace  and  Lorraine  France  finds  itself  confronted 
with  the  problem  of  a  church  and  state  united.  The 
religious  situation  here  is  entirely  different  from  that 
in  the  rest  of  France.  The  act  by  which  church  and 
state  were  separated  in  France  and  relations  with  the 
Vatican  broken  must  eventually  be  applied  to  Alsace 
and  Lorraine,  but  what  the  effect  will  be  is  rather  un- 
certain to-day.  France  has  endeavored  to  assure  the 
residents  of  these  two  lands  that  their  ancient  customs 
would  not  be  affected.  Thus  the  president  of  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies  declared,  "  The  victorious  republic  will 
be  respectful  of  your  traditions,  your  customs,  your  lib- 
erties and  your  beliefs."     Speaking  at  Strasburg  on 


THE  FOURTEE:^  points  227 

Marcli  26,  M.  Millerand  said,  ''  I  have  the  wish  to  re- 
spect scrupulously  the  beliefs  and  customs  of  the  Alsa- 
tians."    And  he  added : 

^'  For  the  moment  the  Concordat  continues,  but  little 
by  little  Alsace  and  Lorraine  will  enter  into  all  the 
forms  of  French  legislation.  The  president  of  the  Re- 
public, the  president  of  the  council,  and  Marshal  JofTre 
have  pronounced  the  words  guaranteeing  your  liberty, 
customs,  and  beliefs.  This  promise  will  be  kept  by 
me." 

One  of  the  first  comments  on  the  new  regime  that  I 
heard  from  an  Alsatian,  a  member  of  an  old  French 
family,  was: 

^'  We  hope  that  France  will  find  a  way  out  to  per- 
mit us  to  keep  our  present  religious  schools  and  will 
not  deprive  the  churches  of  the  support  they  have  re- 
ceived for  so  many  years.  It  is  rather  an  important 
question  for  us,  and  its  solution  will  have  much  to  do 
with  the  success  of  French  Government  here." 

One  is  inclined  to  believe  that  the  Germans  blundered 
much,  but  in  Alsace  and  Lorraine  they  introduced  many 
excellent  measures.  Dr.  Gustave  Le  Bon  asserted  re- 
cently that  the  Germans  failed  to  understand  the  psy- 
chology of  the  Alsatian  people,  but  that  their  economic 
systems  had  much  in  them  that  was  beneficial.  He 
added: 

It  was  only  in  religious  matters,  so  important  to  Alsace,  that 
the  Germanic  domination  did  not  become  oppressive.  The  hope 
of  conquering  the  people  by  the  influence  of  the  clergy  softened 
much  their  attitude  toward  the  churchmen  and  they  respected 
the  Concordat  with  Rome.  They  knew  from  history  that  it  was 
not  possible  to  touch  the  religious  beliefs  of  the  Alsatians.     Re- 


228  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

spectful  of  the  treaties  (those  of  Munster  and  Osnabriick,  "West- 
phalia, 1648;  and  the  terms  of  the  capitulation  of  Strasburg  in 
1680)  even  Louis  XIV,  in  spite  of  the  ardor  of  his  beliefs,  did 
not  apply  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  to  Alsace. 

The  Erench  Government  proceeded  carefully  in  this 
situation.  A  commission  was  appointed  to  investigate 
the  religious  status  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  but  the 
appointment  of  Senator  Debierre  at  its  head  brought  ob- 
jections because  he  was  regarded  as  a  militant  free 
thinker.  Another  flurry  came  when  Monsignor  Ceretti 
arrived  in  Paris  to  treat  with  the  Government  on  re- 
ligious matters.  For  a  moment  it  was  thought  that  the 
monsignor  might  enter  into  relations  with  the  Peace 
Conference  on  behalf  of  the  Vatican,  a  course  that  was 
strongly  objected  to  by  Italy,  which  had  caused  the  in- 
corporation of  a  clause  in  the  secret  treaty  of  1915, 
by  the  terms  of  which  the  Allies  agreed  to  exclude  the 
Vatican  from  the  peace  negotiations.  The  monsignor 
came,  however,  to  cooperate  in  the  appointment  of  two 
French  bishops  to  succeed  the  German  bishops  of  Metz 
and  Strasburg.  A  heated  debate  resulted  in  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies  on  this  subject,  and  it  was  charged  that 
the  Government  had  violated  the  law  separating  the 
church  and  state  in  France.  To  this  M.  Pichon  re- 
plied that  the  law  was  scrupulously  observed  in  France, 
but  that  the  Concordat  was  still  in  force  in  Alsace  and 
Lorraine.  The  clergy  had  asked  the  appointment  of 
French  bishops  by  France  and  had  shown  its  friendly 
attitude  toward  the  Government.  It  is  likely  that  the 
religious  affairs  of  these  returned  provinces  may  for  a 
time  be  regulated  by  a  special  law,  but  the  eventual 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  229 

separation  of  cliurch  and  state  in  Alsace  and  Lorraine 
is  plainly  forecast  by  the  statements  that  have  already 
been  made  in  the  French  Chamber. 

No  title  to  national  property  was  ever  better  than 
the  title  of  France  to  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  yet  it  is  a 
sad  commentary  on  the  ways  of  the  old  secret  diplom- 
acy that  in  order  to  assure  the  return  of  these  lost 
provinces  France  had  to  agree  to  concessions  demanded 
by  another  nation.  This  is  betrayed  in  the  secret  agree- 
ments made  between  France  and  her  allies  and  dis- 
closed in  the  publication  of  the  alleged  secret  records 
of  the  Russian  foreign  office  by  the  Bolsheviki  in  1917. 
They  disclose  that  the  return  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine 
was  a  definite  war  aim  on  the  part  of  France,  but 
that  before  Russia  would  agree  to  England  and  France 
being  permitted  to  regulate  the  western  frontiers  of 
Germany,  Russia  demanded  the  right  to  regulate  the 
eastern  frontiers. 

There  is  another  subject  associated  with  the  return 
of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  to  France,  and  that  is  the  de- 
mand of  France  for  the  Saar  basin.  This,  too,  is  con- 
tained in  the  secret  documents  published  by  the  Rus- 
sians. A  secret  telegram,  dated  January  30,  1917,  and 
purporting  to  have  been  sent  by  the  Russian  foreign 
office  in  Petrograd  to  the  Russian  ambassador  in  Paris 
contains  a  paragraph  which  reads: 

At  an  imperial  audience  M.  Dumerg  transmitted  to  the  em- 
peror the  desire  of  France  to  insure  for  herself  at  the  termina- 
tion of  the  war  the  return  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  and  of  a  cer- 
tain position  in  the  valley  of  the  River  Saar,  and  also  to  attain 
the  political  separation  from  Germany  of  her  beyond  the  Rhine 
provinces  and  their  organization  on  a  different  basis,  so  that  in 


230  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

the  future  the  River  Rhine  should  be  a  secure  strategic  boundary 
against  German  invasion.  Dumerg  expressed  the  hope  that  the 
Imperial  Government  will  not  decline  to  formulate  at  once  its  as- 
sent to  these  propositions. 

The  czar  assented  in  principle,  continues  the  tele- 
gram, but  declared  that  Russia  reserved  the  right  to  ask 
that  she  be  allowed  to  determine  the  eastern  boundaries 
of  Germany  in  turn.  In  a  second  note,  dated  Feb- 
ruary, 1917,  and  addressed  by  the  Russian  minister  of 
foreign  affairs  to  the  French  ambassador  to  Petrograd, 
the  claims  of  France  to  Alsace  and  Lorraine  are  again 
set  forth,  and  the  Saar  basin  also  is  included.  It  reads 
in  part : 

In  your  note  of  this  date  your  Excellency  was  good  enough  to 
communicate  to  the  Imperial  Government  that  the  government  of 
the  republic  intended  to  include  among  the  terms  of  peace  which 
will  be  offered  to  Germany  the  following  demands  and  guaran- 
tees of  territorial  character:  (1)  Alsace  and  Lorraine  to  be  re- 
turned to  France;  (2)  The  boundaries  will  be  extended  at  least 
to  the  limits  of  the  former  principality  of  Lorraine,  and  will  be 
fixed  under  the  direction  of  the  French  Government.  At  the  same 
time  strategic  demands  must  be  taken  into  consideration  so  as  to 
include  within  the  French  territory  the  whole  of  the  industrial 
iron  basin  of  Lorraine  and  the  whole  of  the  industrial  basin  of  the 
valley  of  the  Saar. 

These  arrangements  might  well  stand  as  proof  of  the 
iniquitous  methods  of  the  old  secret  diplomacy,  by 
which  diplomats  traded  peoples  and  lands  off  against 
each  other's  claims  without  any  attempt  to  follow  the 
wishes  of  the  populations  affected.  France's  title  to 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  was  so  clear  and  clean  that  it 
should  not  have  been  soiled  by  mentioning  in  the  same 
breath  French  covetousness  for  the  basin  of  the  Saar. 
That  title  was  questionable,  and  that  claim  was  open 


THE  rOURTEElSr  POINTS  231 

to  the  suspicion  that,  the  war  having  been  won,  Erance 
would  endeavor  in  every  manner  to  profit  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  competing  German. 

The  demand  for  the  Saar  basin  was  made  by  Erance 
almost  as  soon  as  the  subject  of  Germany's  western 
frontiers  was  opened  by  the  Peace  Conference.  It  was 
here  not  a  question  of  French  lands  taken  by  Germany 
in  1871,  but  of  lands  that  had  been  in  German  hands 
since  the  Congress  at  Vienna,  and  that  had  not  been 
French  for  103  years.  Such  title  as  France  could  mus- 
ter historically  had  to  fall  back  upon  the  military  cam- 
paigns of  Louis  XIV,  who  was  active  in  this  region 
and  founded  some  of  the  towns,  and  upon  the  conquests 
of  the  Eevolution  and  the  Napoleonic  armies;  at  other 
times  the  country  had  been  ruled  by  the  Germanic 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  the  bishops  of  Metz,  or  the  dukes 
of  Lorraine,  and  the  people  had  remained  fairly  pre- 
ponderatingly  German,  speaking  their  German  dialect 
and  being  but  little  influenced  by  the  French  elements 
among  them.  Even  if  the  historical  claims  of  the 
French  could  be  admitted,  the  changes  that  had  been 
wrought  here  were  such  that  the  valley  of  the  Saar  could 
not  be  given  to  France  without  violating  the  right  of 
nationalities  that  President  Wilson  had  scrupulously 
guarded. 

One  day  when  I  was  walking  down  the  streets  of 
Strasburg  with  Lucius  F.  Curtis  of  the  Associated  Press 
we  were  accosted  by  a  pleasant  young  man  who  asked 
whether  we  were  Americans. 

"  I  ^am  asking  for  information,"  he  continued.  ^'  I 
have  been  delegated  by  a  number  of  students  of  the  uni- 


232  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

versity  to  express  to  President  Wilson  our  opinion  that 
the  Saar  basin  should  remain  German.  We  are  not 
German  sympathizers.  We  are  Alsatians  who  have 
seen  our  country  used  as  a  foot-ball  in  international  poli- 
tics, and  we  do  not  w^ant  to  see  the  basis  laid  for  new 
wars  that  will  involve  ourselves  and  all  that  we  pos- 
sess. The  Saar  is  German,  and  to  take  that  is  purely 
an  imperialistic  policy.  We  look  upon  President  Wil- 
son as  the  guardian  of  the  rights  of  all  peoples  to  self- 
determination  and  we  wish  to  send  him  our  resolutions." 

There  were  other  elements  besides  the  students  who 
objected  to  the  claims  of  France  to  the  Saar,  and  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Rhine  a  storm  of  rage  and  pro- 
test arose  when  it  became  known  that  the  conference 
was  seriously  debating  giving  the  Saar  to  France. 
'^  ISTo  German  workman  can  accept  the  responsibility 
of  agreeing  to  this,"  cried  out  the  Berlin  workers. 
"  Defend  your  brothers !  Raise  a  protest  through  the 
whole  world !  It  will  be  unjust  for  the  capital  of  the 
Entente  to  demand  the  cession  of  the  Saar  basin,  to 
give  it  a  protectorate  or  provide  other  government  for 
it." 

German  protests  might  have  been  expected.  Ger- 
mans were  bound  to  object  to  nearly  everything.  Cer- 
tain American  newspapers,  however,  also  opposed  this 
demand  of  France.  Liberal  newspapers  of  England 
also  agreed  that  this  was  imperialism  and  economic 
greed. 

One  man  stood  between  the  French  aims  and  their 
accomplishment,  Woodrow  Wilson. 

'Now  comes  a  strange  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 


THE  rOUKTEEN  POINTS  233 

Peace  Conference.  Unofficially,  Prance  based  its 
claims  to  the  Saar  basin  wholly  upon  economic  grounds. 
The  Saar  is  the  region  of  the  great  coal-fields  that  are 
important  when  considered  with  the  iron  mines  of  Lor- 
raine as  an  economic  unit.  To  draw  a  boundary-line 
which  shall  leave  the  iron-mines  on  one  side  and  the 
coal-mines  on  the  other,  and  eventually  place  the  bar- 
rier of  a  customs  tariff  between  them  is  manifestly 
unfair;  but  regulation  of  the  tariff  and  not  a  change 
in  the  boundary-line  is  the  proper  solution,  if  justice 
would  be  served.  Prom  the  point  of  view  of  transpor- 
tation charges  it  was  also  an  advantage  for  the  nation 
which  owned  the  minette  iron-mines  and  the  smelters 
to  own  the  coal,  but  mere  economic  advantages  could 
hardly  be  made  an  argument  before  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence. 

In  the  secret  documents  Prance  places  her  claims  on 
strategic  grounds.  Prance  wishes  to  '^  assure  herself 
of  a  certain  position  in  the  valley  of  the  River  Saar,'' 
and  again,  ^^  At  the  same  time  strategic  demands  must 
be  taken  into  consideration  so  as  to  include  within 
Prench  territory  the  whole  of  the  industrial  iron  basin 
of  Lorraine  and  the  whole  of  the  industrial  basin  of 
the  valley  of  the  Saar." 

President  Wilson,  it  was  asserted  in  Paris,  could 
not  see  his  way  clear  to  agree  to  out-and-out  annexation. 
A  plan  was  then  proposed  to  place  the  administration 
of  the  Saar  basin  under  the  League  of  Nations.  M. 
Andre  Tardieu  was  said  to  be  the  author  of  this  plan. 
To  this  President  Wilson  evidently  agreed.  How  the 
agreement  was  reached,  or  why,  after  both  the  Presi- 


234  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

dent  and  Colonel  House  were  known  to  be  opposed  to 
the  transfer  of  sovereignty,  has  not  yet  been  made  suf- 
ficiently clear  to  the  public,  and  can  be  answered  only 
by  the  President  himself;  but  the  fact  remains  that 
when  the  treaty  of  peace  w^as  made  public,  one  whole 
section  was  devoted  to  the  Saar  basin,  and  the  most 
careful  reading  failed  to  reveal  that  much  more  than 
a  semblance  of  righteousness  had  been  preserved  by 
the  provision  that  the  League  of  Nations  should  be- 
come trustee,  and  that  at  the  end  of  fifteen  years  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Saar  basin  should  be  called  upon  to 
indicate  the  sovereignty  under  which  they  desire  to  be 
placed. 

This  is  in  fact  a  small  concession  in  view  of  the 
great  gains  which  Erance  has  been  enabled  to  make  in 
this  region.  Eor  it  is  set  forth  that  ^'  As  compensation 
for  the  destruction  of  the  coal-mines  in  the  north  of 
France,  and  as  part  payment  toward  the  total  repara- 
tion due  from  Germany  for  the  damage  resulting  from 
the  war,  Germany  cedes  to  France  in  full  and  absolute 
possession,  with  exclusive  rights  of  exploitation,  unen- 
cumbered and  free  from  all  debts  and  charges  of  any 
kind,  the  coal-mines  situated  in  the  Saar  basin."  Pro- 
vision is  also  made  that  France  shall  receive  the  mining 
plants  and  all  their  equipment ;  the  basin  is  to  be  sub- 
ject to  the  French  customs  regime,  and  French  money 
may  be  used.  When  the  plesbiscite  comes,  voting  will 
be  by  communes  or  districts,  and  the  clause  "  If,  for  the 
whole  or  part  of  the  territory,  the  League  of  Nations 
decides  in  favor  of  union  with  France,"  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  action  may  be  taken  to  divide  this  terri- 


THE  E0UETEE:N'  points  235 

torj  in  the  event  one  section  votes  one  way  and  another 
differently.  Furthermore,  should  the  plebiscite  favor 
Germany,  Germany  is  to  purchase  the  mines  in  their 
entirety  at  a  price  payable  in  gold  and  fixed  by  three 
experts,  one  French,  one  German,  and  one  named  by 
the  Council  of  the  League  of  Nations,  and  should  the 
mines  then  go  back  to  Germany,  arrangements  are  to 
be  made  whereby  French  nationals  can  get  all  the  coal 
they  need,  the  contract  terms  to  be  fixed  also  by  the 
council  of  the  league. 

In  this  connection  it  must  also  be  remembered  that 
France  has  obtained  the  promise  of  deliveries  of  coal 
to  make  up  for  the  losses  sustained  by  the  destruction  of 
the  coal  regions  of  northern  France,  in  the  Nord  and 
Pas  de  Calais  departments,  and  that  this  is  to  be  charged 
up  against  claims  for  reparation  of  damages  sustained 
by  France.  For  ten  years  Germany  is  to  make  up  the 
difference  between  the  actual  output  of  these  mines  and 
the  annual  production  before  the  war. 

It  was  not  alone  the  more  liberal-minded  Americans 
who  regretted  that  the  members  of  the  American  mis- 
sion had  found  it  necessary  to  assent  to  the  arrange- 
ment affecting  the  Saar.  In  the  Italian  camp  it  caused 
an  outburst  of  indignation,  for  the  Italians  immediately 
compared  this  action  with  that  of  the  American  Presi- 
dent toward  Fiume.  If,  they  argued,  President  Wil- 
son held  out  against  awarding  Fiume  to  Italy,  for 
which  both  economic  and  nationality  reasons  could  be 
adduced,  how  could  he  compromise  his  principles  so 
far  as  to  yield  to  the  French  demand  for  the  Saar  basin, 
which  was  certainly  inhabited  by  Germans  and  devel- 


236  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

oped  by  them,  and  a  necessary  part  of  their  industrial 
system  ? 

I  could  not  help  but  think  that  Erance  had  com- 
mitted a  diplomatic  and  political  blunder  of  tremen- 
dous consequences,  for  not  alone  had  Erance  provided 
Germany  with  an  irredenta,  with  which  the  German 
mind  would  busy  itself  in  the  years  when  Germany  re- 
covered from  the  effects  of  the  war,  but  France  had 
linked  the  Saar  basin  with  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  and 
so  had  committed  an  injustice  against  the  inhabitants 
of  these  fair  lands,  who  now  hoped  and  prayed  that 
lasting  peace  might  be  theirs  under  French  rule.  I 
had  spoken  with  these  people  and  come  to  understand 
how  ardently  they  craved  that  peace;  I  had  seen  in 
their  faces  the  joy  they  felt  because  now  the  great  wrong 
of  forty-eight  years  ago  had  been  righted.  I  had  be- 
come convinced  that  any  movement  that  jeopardized 
their  right  to  live  in  peace  and  amity  with  their  neigh- 
bors was  nothing  short  of  a  crime. 

One  day  I  was  privileged  to  attend  a  simple  memo- 
rial exercise  in  the  cemetery  of  Colmar.  We  met  be- 
fore an  unusual  monument.  It  had  been  carved  out  of 
the  red  sandstone  of  the  Vosges  and  consisted  of  a  rock 
standing  about  five  feet  high,  and  of  another  lying  as 
on  a  tomb.  The  rock  on  the  tomb  was  partly  raised, 
and  from  it  stretched  a  shoulder  and  an  arm,  with  all 
the  muscles  tense  —  an  arm  that  seemed  to  be  groping 
with  outstretched  fingers  for  a  sword  which  lay  just 
a  few  inches  out  of  reach  of  the  fingers.  It  was  an 
idea  of  tremendous  strength  and  power,  which  drew 
the  eye  back  to  it  again  and  again,  and  made  me  won- 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  237 

der  whether  that  powerful  shoulder,  on  which  the  mus- 
cles stood  out  as  if  in  the  throes  of  a  tremendous  ef- 
fort, would  succeed  in  bursting  the  confines  of  the  nar- 
row tomb. 

This  was  the  memorial  to  Vouilleminot,  soldier  of 
France,  who  died  on  September  14,  1870.  The  monu- 
ment had  been  raised  in  1872  bv  the  sculptor  Bar- 
tholdi,  who  fashioned  the  Statue  of  Liberty,  and  who 
was  a  native  of  Colmar.  In  January,  1916,  the  Ger- 
man General  Gaede  had  caused  the  monument  to  be 
removed,  and  what  I  had  come  to  see  now  was  a  re- 
dedication. 

A  group  of  French  officers  in  their  blue  uniforms  and 
red  caps  with  gold  braid  came  down  the  path  and  took 
a  position  near  the  monument.  They  came  so  unaf- 
fectedly and  so  simply  that  it  was  difficult  to  believe 
that  they  represented  a  nation  whose  military  history 
is  one  of  the  most  imposing  in  the  world.  Most  unas- 
suming among  them  was  General  Gouraud,  commander 
of  the  Fourth  Army.  He  wore  the  traditional  black 
coat,  red  trousei^,  and  leather  puttees,  and  except  for  the 
gold  braid  on  his  cap  and  the  three  stars  on  his  sleeves, 
one  of  which  hung  empty  at  his  side,  there  was  noth- 
ing to  indicate  his  rank. 

Here  was  a  picture  that  nothing  will  ever  efface  from 
my  memory:  General  Gouraud,  standing  beside  the 
monument,  speaking  in  a  simple,  direct  manner, 
quietly,  quickly,  and  firmly ;  near  him  the  men  who  had 
fought  with  him  in  this  most  terrible  of  all  wars; 
round  about  him,  and  lining  the  paths  of  the  ceme- 
tery,  the  plain  people  of  Alsace,   peasants   and  mer- 


238  THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS 

chants,  men  and  women,  the  good  folk  who  had  suf- 
fered and  sacrificed.  And  behind  the  speaker  stood  a 
half  circle  of  aged,  gray-bearded  men,  with  sunken 
cheeks  and  pale,  thin  lips  —  men  who  clustered  about 
the  flag  of  the  republic  and  who  proudly  displayed 
badges  that  announced  them  to  be  veterans  of  the  war 
of  1870-71.  High  overhead  in  a  Lombardy  poplar  a 
bird  was  singing  joyously,  so  loud  and  clear  that  his 
notes  seemed  to  be  echoed  back  from  the  distant  foot- 
hills of  the  Vosges.  The  poplars  were  already  green; 
the  sky  was  an  inspiring  deep  blue ;  there  was  a  prom- 
ise of  new  life  on  the  shrubs  and  hedges.  I  looked  at 
the  soldiers,  and  their  eyes,  too,  were  clear  and  bright ; 
at  the  old  veterans,  and  something  seemed  to  blaze 
with  a  new  fire  from  beneath  their  wrinkled  brows;  at 
the  simple,  sincere  peasant  folk  round  about  me,  and 
their  eyes  shone  with  the  joy  of  the  promise  of  a  new 
day.  These  men  of  Colmar  and  Alsace,  I  thought,  de- 
serve the  best  of  France,  and  that  is  peace,  security, 
tranquillity.  My  mind  has  reverted  many  times  since 
to  that  picture.  Will  the  compact  that  has  been  fash- 
ioned in  Paris  give  them  the  peace  that  is  rightly  theirs  ? 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  President  prepares  a  garden  party  at  Principo,  and  the  invited 
guests  drag  out  the  family  skeleton. 

At  first  I  thought  that  the  wealthy  American  social- 
ist who  lives  in  Switzerland  and  writes  books  eulogistic 
of  Woodrow  Wilson  might  know  what  was  going  to 
be  done  about  Russia,  so  I  went  to  him.  But  he  shook 
his  head.  Then  I  had  an  idea  that  the  Kansas  editor 
who  made  the  public  cry  for  Emporia  might  know  the 
secret,  and  I  sought  him  out,  with  no  better  results. 
Erom  time  to  time  I  would  worry  Secretary  Lansing 
about  it,  and  Colonel  House,  and  even  the  amiable 
Henry  White,  and  once  I  got  a  formidable  glare  out  of 
M.  Pichon  when  I  casually  remarked  one  day : 

''  Monsieur,  is  the  conference  going  to  recognize  the 
Bolshevist  government  ?  " 

M.  Pichon  was  startled.     He  frowned,  glared,  and 
exclaimed  emphatically : 
''  Jam ais !     Jamais !  " 

So  there  really  was  no  way  of  getting  a  solution  of 
the  vexing  Russian  problem  except  to  take  my  question 
to  headquarters.  And  if  it  had  not  been  for  the 
gendarmes  stationed  at  every  corner  and  behind  every 
shrub  of  the  Place  des  Etats-Unis,  and  the  two  Erench 
Poilus  who  guarded  the  entrance  to  the  Hotel  Bischoffs- 
heim,  I  should  most  certainly  have  done  so.     There  was 


240  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

still  the  chance  that  I  might  meet  the  President  un- 
awares in  the  elevator  of  the  Hotel  de  Crillon,  or  at 
the  cigar-stand,  which  also  sold  chocolate  and  chewing- 
gum,  or  in  front  of  the  hotel,  where  the  motion-picture 
photographers  lay  in  wait.  I  had  my  question  pre- 
pared. Before  he  could  get  away  I  should  ask  him, 
point-blank,  whether  he  favored  Koltchak  or  Denikin 
or  Lenine  or  Petloura  or  Tchaikovsky  or  all  or  none; 
and  then,  to  make  a  good  job  of  it,  I  should  add  the 
daily  prayer  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
"  When  are  you  going  to  get  the  boys  out  of  Kussia  ?  '^ 
Yet  I  should  be  doing  an  injustice  to  the  man  and  to 
the  executive  if  I  gave  the  impression  that  President 
Wilson  did  not  do  everything  in  his  power  to  bring 
about  a  conciliation  among  the  warring  factions  of  the 
former  Russian  Empire.  More  than  that,  he  was  the 
leader  in  movements  intended  solely  to  stop  the  devastat- 
ing civil  wars  waging  within  the  confines  of  Russia,  to 
restore  this  country  to  its  place  among  the  nations,  and 
to  give  it  the  seat  that  it  deserved  to  occupy  at  the  peace 
table.  Guatemala,  Haiti,  !Niicaragua,  Uruguay  and 
Hedjaz  —  minor  nations  of  no  consequence  in  world  af- 
fairs —  sat  with  the  great  powers  in  council  and  helped 
adjudicate  the  affairs  of  the  world;  Russia,  as  one  of 
her  sons  aptly  said,  having  lost  9,500,000  men  during 
the  war,  of  which  number  at  least  1,700,000  were  dead, 
was  not  even  given  a  voice  in  Paris.  And  this  despite 
the  fact  that  the  integrity  of  Russia  was  made  one  of 
the  conditions  of  peace  by  being  included  in  the  Four- 
teen Points,  and  was  agreed  to  by  both  the  Allied  pow- 
ers and  the  enem^. 


THE  FOUETEE]^  POINTS  241 

The  sixth  point  is  the  longest  of  the  fourteen.  Its 
phraseology  gives  evidence  of  long  and  careful  study. 
No  wonder,  for  the  President  of  the  United  States  was 
enunciating  a  policy  and  preaching  a  sermon  all  in  one. 
He  was  outlining  what  was  just  and  proper  for  the 
Allies  to  do ;  he  was  denouncing  the  German  action  that 
found  its  climax  in  Brest-Litovsk ;  he  was  addressing 
the  great  mass  of  the  Russian  people  who  had  faith  in 
the  Western  democracies,  and  the  great  numbers  who 
had  espoused  the  Bolshevist  cause  and  laid  down  their 
arms  in  the  face  of  the  enemy.  The  sixth  point  is  best 
grasped  when  it  is  broken  up  into  its  component  parts, 
so  that  the  proper  emphasis  is  placed  on  each  line  of 
conduct.  The  President  declares  the  only  possible  pro- 
gram to  be : 

6.  The  evacuation  of  all  Russian  territory 

and  such  a  settlement  of  all  questions  affecting  Russia  as  will 
secure  the  best  and  freest  cooperation  of  the  other  nations  of  the 
world 

in  obtaining  for  her  an  unhampered  and  unembarrassed  oppor- 
tunity for  the  independent  determination  of  her  own  political 
development 

and  national  policy 

and  assure  her  of  a  sincere  welcome  into  the  society  of  free 
nations 

under  institutions  of  her  own  choosing; 

and,  more  than  a  welcome,  assistance  also  of  every  kind  that 
she  may  need  and  may  herself  desire. 

The  treatment  accorded  Russia  by  her  sister  nations  in  the 
months  to  come  will  be  the  acid  test  of  their  good  will, 

of  their  comprehension  of  her  needs  as  distinguished  from  their 
own  interests, 

and  of  their  intelligent  and  unselfish  sympathy. 

The  Peace  Conference  had  been  formally  opened  on 
January  18,     On  the  followino:  Wednesday,  January 


242  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

22,  we  were  all  consulting  maps  to  learn  the  location 
of  the  Princes'  Islands  in  the  Sea  of  ^larmora.  For  the 
Council  of  Five,  composed  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  the  prime  ministers  or  foreign  minis- 
ters of  the  Allied  powers,  and  the  Japanese  representa- 
tive, had  approved  the  proposal  of  President  Wilson 
that  the  Russian  factions  should  be  asked  to  put  aside 
their  civil  strife  for  the  time  being  and  meet  on  the 
Princes'  Islands  with  representatives  of  the  great  pow- 
ers on  February  15,  1919,  there  to  discuss  plans  for  a 
settlement  of  their  difficulties.  The  object  of  the  pow- 
ers is  most  commendably  set  forth  in  their  announce- 
ment, which  was  sent  by  wireless  to  all  parts  of  Russia. 
It  declared  that  they  were  friends,  and  not  enemies,  of 
the  Russian  people;  that  they  recognized  the  right  of 
the  Russian  people  to  order  their  own  affairs  without 
external  direction  or  pressure ;  that  they  '^  recognize  the 
revolution  without  reservation,  and  will  in  no  way  and 
in  no  circumstances  aid  or  give  countenance  to  any 
attempt  at  a  counter-revolution ;  that  they  do  not  wish 
to  assist  or  favor  any  one  of  the  organized  groups  in 
Russia  as  against  the  others,"  but  merely  to  help  Russia 
find  a  way  out  of  her  troubles.  The  plan  they  proposed 
was  as  follows : 

They  invite  every  organized  group  that  is  now  exercising  or 
attempting  to  exercise  political  authority  or  military  control  any- 
where in  Siberia,  or  within  the  boundaries  of  European  Russia  as 
they  stood  before  the  war  just  conchided  (except  in  Finland)  to 
send  representatives  not  exceeding  three  representatives  for  each 
group,  to  the  Princes'  Islands,  Sea  of  Marmora,  where  they  will 
be  met  by  representatives  of  the  associated  powers,  provided  in 
the  meantime  there  is  a  truce  of  arms  amongst  the  parties  invited, 
and  that  all  armed  forces  anywhere  sent  or  directed  against  any 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  243 

people  or  territory  outside  the  boundaries  of  European  Russia  as 
they  stood  before  the  war,  or  against  Finland,  or  against  any 
people  on  territory  whose  autonomous  action  is  in  contemplation 
in  the  fourteen  articles  upon  which  the  present  negotiations  are 
based,  shall  be  meanwhile  withdrawn,  and  aggressive  military 
action  cease. 

The  statement  assured  tlie  delegates  that  they  were 
invited  to  confer  in  the  frankest  way,  and  that  every  fa- 
cility for  the  journey  would  be  given  by  the  powers. 

Thus  virtually  in  the  first  few  sessions  of  the  Peace 
Conference  President  Wilson  showed  his  hand.  He  had 
been  concerned  with  the  affairs  of  Russia  for  a  long 
time,  but  always  with  a  view  of  permitting  the  Russians 
to  settle  their  own  quarrel.  Undoubtedly  he  had  busied 
his  mind  with  a  plan  of  conciliation  among  the  many 
Russian  factions  long  before  the  George  Washington 
touched  the  coast  of  France.  And  long  before  the  Peace 
Conference  was  called  in  formal  session  he  had  spoken 
of  his  views  to  the  heads  of  the  Allied  governments, 
and  had  won  them  over  to  his  idea.  To  accomplish 
this  required  no  small  measure  of  determination  and 
political  sagacity.  For  despite  the  fact  that  Great  Brit- 
ain could  only  gain,  and  not  lose,  by  the  continued  war- 
fare between  Russian  groups,  Mr.  Lloyd  George  came 
valiantly  to  the  President's  side,  and  this  made  it  pos' 
sible  for  them  to  swing  M.  Clemenceau  over  to  their 
view.     That  was  the  hardest  part  of  the  task. 

Not  one  of  the  Allied  powers  was  willing  to  treat  with 
Lenine  and  Trotzky,  nor  was  the  United  States  dis- 
posed to  do  so.  To  the  Western  democracies  the  soviet 
system  of  the  Bolshevist  party  represented  disintegra- 
tion and  anarchv.     The  bare-faced  manner  in  which  the 


244  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

Eussian  people  had  left  the  side  of  their  Allies  and 
made  peace  with  Germany  had  cost  the  remaining  pow- 
ers thousands  of  men  and  great  sums  of  money.  The 
harsh  treatment  of  British  and  Erench  nationals;  the 
confiscation  of  personal  property,  irrespective  of  inter- 
national rights  and  amenities;  the  repudiation  of  the 
national  debt  of  the  czar's  regime ;  the  nationalization  of 
the  principal  industries  and  the  threat  of  nationaliza- 
tion of  all  industries ;  the  seizure  of  private  and  public 
funds  in  the  banks,  and  the  deprivation  of  the  political 
and  civil  rights  of  all  persons  who  did  not  work  by  hand 
—  these  were  acts  that  the  Western  powers  found  it 
hard  to  condone,  no  matter  how  sympathetic  they  might 
wish  to  feel  with  a  revolution  that  broke  the  chains  of 
bondage  welded  under  the  czar.  That  the  President 
could  win  this  victory  in  the  first  days  of  the  confer- 
ence was  no  small  achievement,  even  though  the  Erench 
acceded  with  tongue  in  cheek. 

The  President  followed  up  his  first  move  by  appoint- 
ing George  D.  Ilerron,  a  socialist  and  a  writer  who 
lived  in  Switzerland,  and  William  Allen  White,  an 
American  newspaper  man  who  had  been  extremely  ac- 
tive in  Republican  and  Progressive  political  movements, 
to  represent  the  United  States  at  Principo,  the  largest 
of  the  Princes'  Islands.  Mr.  Ilerron  w^as  a  man  with 
a  wide  European  acquaintance,  who  could  meet  all 
classes  of  Russian  socialists  and  understand  their  points 
of  view.  Mr.  White  was  a  plain  Westerner  with  a  large 
fund  of  sound  common  sense,  something  that  the  Rus- 
sian situation  called  for  more  than  anything  else. 

The  United  States  Government  already  had  made 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  245 

several  attempts  to  create  a  more  friendly  feeling  in 
Russia,  but  its  efforts  had  not  been  successful,  and  more 
recently  it  had  lent  itself  to  military  adventures  of 
rather  doubtful  character.  The  President  had  always 
wished  to  see  Russia  work  out  her  own  salvation,  and  to 
this  end  had  interfered  much  less  than  did  the  Euro- 
pean governments.  The  President's  attitude  may  be 
adduced  from  the  message  he  sent  to  the  Russian  con- 
gress of  Soviets  in  Moscow  on  March  12,  1918,  in  which 
he  said : 

May  I  not  take  advantage  of  the  meeting  of  the  congress  of 
the  Soviets  to  express  the  sincere  sympathy  which  the  people  of 
the  United  States  feel  for  the  Russian  people  at  this  moment  when 
the  German  power  has  been  thrust  in  to  interrupt  and  turn  back 
the  whole  struggle  for  freedom  and  substitute  the  wishes  of  Ger- 
many for  the  purpose  of  the  people  of  Russia? 

Although  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  unhappily  not 
now  in  a  position  to  render  the  direct  and  effective  aid  it  would 
wish  to  render,  I  beg  to  assure  the  people  of  Russia,  through  the 
congress,  that  it  will  avail  itself  of  every  opportunity  to  secure  for 
Russia  once  more  complete  sovereignty  and  independence  in  her 
own  affairs  and  full  restoration  of  her  great  role  in  the  life  of 
Europe  and  the  modern  world. 

The  whole  heart  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  is  with  the 
people  of  Russia  in  the  attempt  to  free  themselves  forever  from 
autocratic  government  and  become  the  masters  of  their  own  life. 

The  President  puts  the  emphasis  upon  the  people  of 
Russia,  not  the  Bolshevist  group.  How  much  the  Gov- 
ernment abhorred  the  terroristic  methods  of  that  dicta- 
torship is  proved  by  the  appeal  which  the  United  States 
felt  itself  compelled  to  make  in  September  of  the  same 
year.  It  called  upon  its  representatives  abroad  to  bring 
the  state  of  terror  prevailing  in  soviet  Russia  to  the 
attention  of  the  nations  to  which  they  were  accredited, 
so  that  the  righteous  wrath  of  all  civilized  countries 


246  THE  ADVENTUEES  OF 

might  be  visited  upon  the  Bolsheviki.  The  Govern- 
ment said  that  it  was  informed  that 

the  peaceable  Russian  citizens  of  Moscow,  Petrograd,  and  other 
cities  are  suffering  from  an  openly  avowed  campaign  of  marked 
terrorism  and  are  subject  to  wholesale  executions.  Thousands  of 
persons  have  been  shot  without  even  a  form  of  trial;  ill  adminis- 
tered prisons  are  filled  beyond  capacity  and  every  night  scores  of 
Russian  citizens  are  recklessly  put  to  death,  and  irresponsible 
hands  are  venting  their  brutal  passions  in  the  daily  massacre  of 
untold  innocents. 

In  view  of  the  earnest  desire  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
to  befriend  the  Russian  people  and  lend  them  all  possible  assist- 
ance in  their  struggle  to  reconstruct  their  nation  upon  principles 
of  democracy  and  self-government,  and  acting  therefore  solely  in 
the  interest  of  the  Russian  people  themselves,  this  government 
feels  that  it  cannot  be  silent  or  refrain  from  expressing  its  horror 
at  this  state  of  terrorism.  Furthermore  it  believes  that  in  order 
to  check  the  further  increase  of  the  indiscriminate  slaughter  of 
Russians,  citizens  of  all  civilized  nations  should  register  their 
abhorrence  of  such  barbarism. 

The  policy  of  the  United  States  Government  toward 
Russia  has  not  had  a  positive,  determined  character ;  it 
might  well  be  characterized  as  a  waiting  and  hoping 
policy.  It  has  frequently  been  criticized  as  inconsistent 
or  lacking  in  direction,  but  in  this  it  has  been  no  differ- 
ent than  Russian  affairs  themselves.  It  is  hardly  pos- 
sible to  characterize  the  American  policy  in  a  word,  be- 
cause it  has  differed  at  various  times.  Our  Govern- 
ment has  pursued  the  following  line  of  conduct:  It 
has  avoided  decisive  action  whenever  possible,  appar- 
ently in  the  hope  that  the  affairs  of  Eussia  would  adjust 
themselves  without  American  interference ;  it  has  been 
sympathetic  to  any  plan  to  get  the  various  Russian  fac- 
tions together;  it  has  avoided  having  any  relations  with 
the  soviet  government,  and  in  every  instance  in  which 


THE  FOURTEEN  POIi^TS  247 

it  has  had  to  address  the  Bolsheviki  it  has  kept  in  the 
foreground  the  view  that  they  were  but  part  of  the 
great  Russian  people;  it  has  been  unwilling  to  fight 
the  Bolsheviki  in  the  field,  and  yet  has  sent  to  Russia 
detachments  of  troops  which  have  been  variously  occu- 
pied, in  protecting  stores,  railway  lines,  and  property; 
it  has  signified  its  intention  of  helping  Admiral  Kolt- 
chak  with  supplies  of  arms,  and  yet  has  withheld  actual 
recognition  of  his  faction  as  the  de  facto  Russian  gov- 
ernment, ostensibly  placing  the  admiral  on  probation 
because  of  reports  that  he  favored  a  monarchial  regime. 
The  original  aim  in  sending  troops  to  Russia  —  to  help 
protect  the  Czecho-Slovak  army  against  the  German  and 
Austrian  prisoners  in  Russia  and  Siberia,  and  to  pro- 
tect Allied  stores  from  falling  into  German  hands,  was 
fulfilled  when  the  armistice  came,  and  the  presence  of 
those  troops  abroad  came  to  be  regarded  in  America  as 
interference  in  the  internal  affairs  of  Russia  and  con- 
trary to  the  spirit  of  Point  Six. 

The  ''  call  to  Principo  "  was  variously  received  by 
the  Russian  factions.  Most  of  those  outside  the  soviet 
government  threw  up  their  hands  in  holy  horror  at  the 
idea  of  meeting  w^ith  the  Soviet's  representatives,  as  if 
it  were  an  abomination  to  confer  with  brother  Russians. 
The  principal  opposition  came  from  the  Russian  lead- 
ers in  Paris.  Three  of  the  Russian  governments  — 
those  at  Archangel,  Omsk,  and  Ekaterinodar  —  had 
united  in  a  central  Russian  committee  in  Paris  and 
occupied  the  former  Russian  embassy  as  their  head- 
quarters. Professor  Boris  A.  Bakhmetieff,  ambassador 
to  France,  refused  to  entertain  the  idea  of  meeting  the 


248  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Bolsbeviki.  Prince  Georges  Eugeu  Lvoff,  a  member  of 
the  progressive  party  and  formerly  in  the  cabinet  of 
Kerensky,  and  now  president  of  the  combined  commit- 
tee in  Paris,  declared  that  the  invitation  to  Principo 
was  "  a  fatal  blow  not  only  for  Russia,  but  for  the 
world."  He  asserted  that  the  Russians  in  Paris  had 
not  been  consulted.  ''  Russian  patriots  cannot  meet  the 
men  who  betrayed  Russia  at  Brest-Litovsk,"  he  said. 
Nicholas  Tschaikovsky,  president  of  the  Archangel  gov- 
ernment, was  on  his  way  to  Paris  when  the  call  went 
out,  but  his  representatives  in  Archangel  sent  word  that 
they  w^ould  not  attend  the  conference.  Sergius  Sa- 
zonoff,  who  had  been  minister  of  foreign  affairs  under 
the  czar  and  represented  the  southern  Russian  or  Eka- 
terinodar  government  at  Paris,  also  refused  to  counte- 
nance the  idea.  Boris  Savinkoff,  minister  of  war  under 
Kerensky,  went  calmly  ahead  to  organize  a  federation 
of  anti-Bolshevist  governments  to  encircle  the  Bol- 
sbeviki. 

The  first  acceptance  of  the  invitation  to  Principo  came 
from  the  Bolsbeviki.  The  ^'  Isvestia  "  had  published 
a  comment  on  January  28,  saying  that  the  invitation 
bore  neither  address  nor  signature.  On  February  5 
the  Paris  wireless  station  picked  up  a  radio  message 
in  French  signed  Tchitcherin,  dated  Moscow,  February 
4,  and  addressed  to  the  powers.  It  was  remarkable  for 
the  concessions  that  it  made  voluntarily.  The  soviet 
government  declared  its  readiness  to  enter  into  negotia- 
tions ;  to  assume  the  Russian  foreign  debt ;  to  grant 
mining,  forestry,  and  other  concessions  to  foreign  cap- 
ital, and  to  limit,  in  so  far  as  was  in  its  power,  its 


Press  Illustrating  Service,  Inc. 


IGNACE  PADEREWSKI 


Famous  today  not  because  he  is  an  artist,  but  prime  minister  of  Poland,  the  only  nation  growing 
out  of  old  Russia  whose  independence  all  Russian  factions  appear  willing  to  concede 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  240 

propaganda.  The  whole  reply  was  a  carefully  worded 
statement  of  the  Bolshevist  case,  and-  Tchitcherin  took 
pains  to  outline  the  Bolshevist  military  situation,  to 
declare  reports  of  disorder  lies,  and  to  speak  of  the  re- 
forms introduced  by  the  Bolshevist  government.  The 
Esthonians  and  the  Letts  accepted  on  February  13,  and 
the  Ukraine  declared  its  willingness  to  attend  the  con- 
ference, but  thought  the  date  too  soon.  On  February 
10,  at  the  Hotel  de  Crillon,  Secretary  Lansing  met  M. 
Tschaikovsky ;  M.  Tethoff,  who  had  been  food  commis- 
sioner under  Kerensky ;  and  Charles  R.  Crane,  and  on 
the  same  day  was  announced  the  formal  refusal  of  the 
three  united  Russian  governments  to  treat  with  the  Bol- 
sheviki.  The  decision  caused  a  great  deal  of  joy  in 
French  circles,  and  there  was  a  suspicion  at  American 
headquarters  that  the  Russians  had  covertly  received 
a  great  deal  of  support  in  circles  which  outwardly  pre- 
tended to  favor  the  Principo  project.  The  French  Gov- 
ernment had  favored  military  intervention  in  Russia, 
but  President  Wilson  had  set  his  face  sternly  against 
this  in  December,  and  although  the  French  asked  the 
peace  commissioners  to  hear  M.  Xoulens  and  M.  Sca- 
venius  speak  in  favor  of  intervention  later  on,  their  tes- 
timony on  Bolshevist  misrule  had  failed  to  convince 
the  American  President  that  American  troops  should  be 
sent. 

"  Idealogy,  ignorance,  and  party  politics  —  such  are 
the  evil  guests  of  the  Quai  d'Orsay,"  was  the  phrase  in 
which  the  ^'  Echo  de  Paris  "  attempted  to  hit  off  Presi- 
dent Wilson,  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  and  M.  Clemenceau 
when  the  proposal  was  first  made. 


250  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

The  Principo  plan  soon  became  a  sort  of  standing 
joke.  Eor  a  long  time  nothing  was  done  in  Paris  to 
come  to  a  solution  of  the  Russian  question,  although  it 
was  evident  that  attempts  had  been  made  to  bring  the 
anti-Bolshevist  groups  around  to  the  American  view. 
The  flowers  bloomed  on  Principo,  the  skies  were  blue 
above  it,  the  olive-groves  were  green  with  new  foliage. 
Mr.  White  spoke  eloquently  at  our  conferences  on  the 
beauty  of  the  rendezvous,  but  it  appeared  unlikely  that 
our  Kansas  editor  and  our  socialist  professor  would 
ever  go  there  to  counsel  the  Russians  to  live  as  brothers. 

An  idea  of  the  number  of  Russian  factions  repre- 
sented at  Principo  had  the  proposal  succeeded  may  be 
gained  from  this  tentative  list  of  provisional  govern- 
ments eligible  to  attend :  the  Moscow  council  of  Soviets, 
calling  itself  the  Russian  Socialist  Federative  Soviet  re- 
public ;  the  Koltchak  government  of  Omsk  ;  the  southern 
government  at  Ekaterinodar,  led  by  Denikin;  the  direc- 
tory of  Ufa,  led  by  Avksentyev's  group  of  social  revolu- 
tionaries, which  had  clashed  with  Koltchak  and  was 
fighting  both  him  and  the  Bolsheviki;  the  Archangel 
government;  the  Tiflis  government;  the  Ukraine;  Es- 
thonia;  Livonia;  Lithuania;  Georgia;  the  League  for 
the  Regeneration  of  Russia ;  and  the  central  committee 
of  the  social  democratic  party. 

Day  after  day  the  American  commissioners  were 
bombarded  with  the  question,  "  What  about  Principo  ?  " 
and  day  after  day  they  responded  rather  sadly :  "  We 
have  heard  nothing  more."  The  anti-Bolshevist  Rus- 
sian elements  in  Paris  stood  firm,  and  the  French  press 
could  sneer  at  the  American  President  with  impunity. 


THE  FOUKTEElSr  POINTS  251 

Whether  planned  or  not,  France  had  won  a  diplomatic 
victory. 

Yet  the  idea  that  the  Allied  troops  were  out  of  place 
in  Russia  continued  to  spread  among  the  European  na- 
tions. The  German  menace  had  died  away,  and  there 
w^ere  only  the  Czecho-Slovaks  to  help  and  the  accumu- 
lated stores  to  protect.  The  protests  in  the  United 
States  against  American  soldiers  being  used  longer  in 
Russia  spread  to  Erance  and  Great  Britain.  The 
French  were  confronted  with  an  agitation  against  fur- 
ther military  adventures.  It  spread  to  the  soldiers 
themselves  and  to  the  sailors  at  Odessa.  The  Confed- 
eration Generale  du  Travail  declared  openly  against 
war  on  an  Allied  country. 

About  8000  American  troops  had  been  sent  to  Siberia 
to  cooperate  with  the  Czecho-Slovaks,  and  about  5000 
to  Archangel.  Eleven  nationalities  were  represented 
in  the  troops  at  Archangel.  At  this  time  the  protests 
in  the  United  States  Senate  against  the  presence  of 
troops  in  Russia  became  more  acute,  and  on  February 
15  a  resolution  introduced  by  Senator  Johnson  of  Cali- 
fornia calling  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  American 
troops  was  defeated  only  when  the  Vice-President  voted 
''  No  "  to  break  the  tie.  On  February  17  Secretary  of 
War  Baker  informed  the  senate  that  the  President  had 
arrived  at  an  agreement  with  the  British  by  the  terms 
of  which  the  American  troops  at  Archangel  were  to  be 
withdrawn  as  soon  as  spring  came. 

In  March  M.  Pi  eh  on  furnished  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  w^ith  official  figures  regarding  the  number  of 
Allied   and   American   troops   in   Russia.     lie   showed 


252  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

that  there  were  34,765  men  on  the  Archangel  front  and 
334,700  men  on  the  Serbian  front.  At  Archangel  the 
British  had  13,100  troops;  the  Russians  were  next  with 
11,770,  and  the  United  States  third  with  -4920.  The 
Erench  had  only  2345.  On  the  Siberian  front  the  Rus- 
sians had  210,000,  the  Japanese  had  27,000,  the 
Czecho-Slovaks  had  55,000,  the  Poles  had  12,000,  the 
French  had  7600,  and  the  United  States  had  7500. 

In  March  the  report  was  circulated  in  Paris  that  an 
American,  perhaps  two  Americans,  had  penetrated 
soviet  Russia  and  had  actually  walked  about  on  the 
streets  of  Petrograd  for  a  day  or  two  or  even  for  three 
days.  I  still  recall  the  apparently  polite  curiosity  with 
which  Secretary  Lansing  greeted  this  news. 

"  Bullitt  ?  "  he  asked.  "  ^o,  I  have  heard  nothing 
from  Mr.  Bullitt." 

The  story  was  told  that  comment  in  London  had  it 
that  two  Americans  had  gone  into  soviet  Russia.  It 
was  the  subject,  I  think,  of  an  interpellation  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  At  any  rate,  it  was  belittled  by 
the  Allied  press.  Secretary  Lansing  appeared  to  be 
interested,  but  he  could  give  no  definite  information  to 
the  newspaper  men.  Was  the  trip  of  the  two  Ameri- 
cans an  authoritative  visit  or  just  a  streak  of  luck  ? 
Well,  now,  that  was  hard  to  tell. 

JSTevertheless,  William  C.  Bullitt  and  Lincoln  Stef- 
fens  went  into  Russia  to  discuss  plans  with  the  soviet 
officials  for  a  basis  of  negotiation.  They  were  helped 
across  the  River  Sestra  by  American  officials,  and  were 
met  and  directed  to  the  officials  of  the  soviet  by  author- 
ized representatives.     Both  Mr.  Bullitt  and  Mr.  Steffens 


THE  F0URTEE:N'  points  253 

were  men  remarkably  well  qualified  for  their  task.     Mr. 
Bullitt  was  a  friend  of  Colonel  House,  and  had  advo- 
cated that  the  United  States  get  better  reports  on  the 
Russian  situation  than  were  furnished  by  British  and 
French  sources,  and  attempt  seriously  to  get  the  various 
Russian  factions  together  on  the  basis  of  mutual  under- 
standing.    He  was  interested  in  labor  and  labor  organ- 
izations and  was  reported  to  favor  building  up  the  peace 
of  the  world  by  creating  a  solidarity  among  the  labor- 
ing masses  which  would  prevent  war  in  the  future. 
He  went  into  Russia  and  put  his  shoulder  to  the  wheel. 
With  Mr.  Steffens  he  tried  to  get  an  honest  comprehen- 
sion of  the  political  program  involved  in  soviet  rule, 
and  an  idea  of  what  possible  basis  all  Russian  factions 
could  get  together  on,  so  that  their  civil  strife  might 
stop  and  Russia  might  find  herself  again.     The  basis 
for  an  understanding  was  arrived  at  with  Tchitcherin 
and  Lenine  in  Moscow,  and  terms  were  actually  drawn 
up.     There  was  to  be  an  armistice  between  all  the  Rus- 
sian governments,  affecting  also  the  Allied  and  Amer- 
ican troops  on  Russian  soil,  to  be  followed  by  a  con- 
ference of  the  Russian  groups.     The  text  of  the  agree- 
ment, which  has  come  to  us  from  the  soviet  government, 
sets  forth  that  "  all  existing  de  facto  governments  set 
up  on  the  territory  of  the  former  Russian  empire  and 
Finland  to  remain  in  full  control  of  the  territories  they 
occupy  at  the  moment  the  armistice  becomes  effective, 
except  in  so  far  as  the  conference  may  agree  upon  the 
territories.     The  soviet  government  and  all  other  gov- 
ernments set  up  on  the  territory  of  the  former  Russian 
empire,  as  well  as  the  Allied  and  associated  governments 


254  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

operating  against  the  soviet  government,  including  Fin- 
land, Poland,  Galicia,  Koumania,  Armenia,  Azorbaijan, 
and  Afghanistan,  agree  not  to  attempt  to  upset  by  force 
the  existing  de  facto  governments  and  other  governments 
signatory  to  this  agreement."  Furthermore  the  eco- 
nomic blockade  was  to  be  raised,  and  trade  relations 
with  soviet  Eussia  and  the  Allied  and  associated  gov- 
ernments restored,  "  under  conditions  insuring  supplies 
on  equal  terms  for  all  classes  of  Russian  people."  This 
was  a  blow  at  the  class  rule  of  the  soviet,  which  had 
contended  that  only  workers  should  be  fed.  Arrange- 
ments were  to  be  made  for  the  use  of  ports  and  railways 
throughout  Russia  by  the  soviet  for  the  purpose  of  mov- 
ing food  and  passengers.  The  exchange  of  official  rep- 
resentatives was  provided  for  both  between  the  soviet 
and  the  great  powers,  and  the  soviet  and  the  other  Rus- 
sian states. 

The  various  Russian  governments  were  to  give  am- 
nesty to  all  political  prisoners,  and  the  same  action  was 
to  take  place  with  reference  to  Russians  who  might  be 
held  by  the  powers,  or  citizens  of  the  powers  held  in 
Russia.  This  was  to  include  those  who  had  carried 
arms.  A  humane  provision  read :  ^'  War  prisoners  of 
non-Russian  powers  detained  in  Russia  and  likewise  all 
nationals  of  these  powers  now  in  Russia  to  be  given  full 
facilities  for  repatriation.  Russian  war  prisoners  in 
foreign  countries  and  likewise  all  Russian  nationals, 
including  officers  and  soldiers  abroad  serving  in  foreign 
armies,  to  be  given  full  facilities  for  repatriation." 
All  troops  of  the  powers  to  be  withdrawn  when 
the  armistice  was  signed,  and  no  more  help  was  to  be 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  255 

given  to  anti-soviet  governments.  The  soviet  and  other 
governments  were  to  begin  reducing  'their  armies  at 
once  to  a  peace  footing,  the  conference  to  determine  the 
most  effective  method  of  doing  this.  And  finally  the 
following  clause  concerned  the  payment  of  the  Russian 
debt: 

The  allied  and  associated  governments,  taking  cognizance  of 
the  statement  of  the  soviet  government  of  Russia  in  its  note  of 
February  4,  regarding  its  foreign  debts,  propose  as  an  integral 
part  of  this  agreement  that  the  soviet  and  other  governments  set 
up  on  territory  of  the  former  Russian  empire  and  Finland  shall 
recognize  their  responsibility  for  the  financial  obligation  of  the 
former  Russian  empire  to  the  foreign  state  parties  to  this  agree- 
ment and  to  the  nationals  of  such  state.  Detailed  arrangements 
for  the  payment  of  these  debts  to  be  agreed  upon  at  the  confer- 
ence. Russian  gold  seized  by  the  Czecho-Slovaks  in  Kazan  or 
taken  from  Germany  by  the  Allies  to  be  regarded  as  a  partial  pay- 
ment of  the  republics  of  Russia. 

Mr.  Bullitt  and  Mr.  Steffens  returned,  and  made 
their  report  direct  to  Secretary  Lansing.  An  attempt 
was  made  to  learn  the  result  of  their  investigations,  but 
all  in  vain.  The  foreign  press  continued  its  attacks 
on  the  Americans,  but  the  Americans  remained  silent. 
Pressed  to  tell  the  content  of  the  report  from  Russia, 
Secretary  Lansing  said  one  day : 

"  There  is  nothing  to  make  public.  It  is  to  be  pre- 
sumed that  the  American  Government,  like  other  gov- 
ernments, has  sources  of  information  and  gets  reports. 
The  other  governments  do  not  publish  theirs.  Why 
should  we  ?  " 

As  for  the  Bullitt  mission,  nothing  came  of  it. 
'^  Izvestia,"  the  official  soviet  organ  in  Moscow,  said 
that  the  soviet  government  had  stated  its  willingness 


256  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

to  accept  the  terms  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Bullitt,  but  that 
they  were  never  officially  offered. 

Here,  again,  publicity  might  have  saved  the  day. 
At  least  it  would  have  made  clear  to  the  world  the  dis- 
interested attitude  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  in  face  of  the  questionable  attitude  of  the  Euro- 
pean and  Japanese  governments  toward  Russia. 

In  March  and  April  the  French  press  became  espe- 
cially vindictive  in  its  criticism  of  the  American 
manoeuvers  to  bring  about  peace  in  Russia.  In  this 
it  reflected  the  view  of  the  Clemenceau  government, 
which  was  opposed  to  any  movement  looking  toward 
recognition  of  the  Bolsheviki.  As  M.  Pichon  said  one 
day,  France  had  18,000,000,000  francs  (nominally 
$3,600,000,000)  invested  in  Russia.  France  was 
against  Bolshevism  in  Russia,  he  said,  and  for  a  strong 
united  Russian  state  on  a  federal  basis,  with  the  exclu- 
sion of  Poland  and  Finland,  a  democratic  federal  basis 
built  on  the  consent  of  the  governed. 

Some  of  the  French  critics  took  the  view  that  the 
United  States  was  negotiating  with  the  soviet  in  order 
to  gain  immense  trade  concessions.  M.  Gauvain  wrote 
on  April  19,  accusing  the  United  States  of  negotiating 
immense  concessions  in  Russia.  The  "  Echo  de  Paris  " 
on  April  18  said:  ^^  For  the  last  few  weeks  a  swarm  of 
agents  has  descended  from  America  on  our  former  ally. 
They  treat  directly  with  Lenine,  pocketing  grants  of 
concessions."  This  is  an  example  of  the  sort  of  mis- 
representation to  which  the  Americans  were  constantly 
subjected  in  Paris. 

It  is  true  that  the  investments  of  France  in  Russia 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  257 

were  large,  and  that  the  non-payment  of  interest  and 
the  danger  of  loss  of  part  of  them  hit  every  French 
householder.  On  the  other  hand,  the  British  invest- 
ments were  estimated  at  no  less  than  $3,375,000,000. 

An  attempt  to  get  the  Bolsheviki  to  cease  military 
operations  by  offering  them  food  was  the  next  manoeuver 
of  the  Peace  Conference.  In  this  the  United  States 
again  took  a  prominent  place,  for  the  reason  that  it  was 
the  only  nation  with  resources  of  food  at  its  disposal. 
An  attempt  was  made  through  Dr.  Fridtjof  N'ansen,  the 
Norwegian  explorer,  to  treat  with  the  soviet  govern- 
ment. Again  the  negotiations  were  veiled  in  obscurity. 
At  the  Hotel  de  Crillon  no  official  information  was 
forthcoming.  As  usual  the  news  leaked  out  from  other 
sources  that  Dr.  Nansen  was  to  make  an  effort  to  estab- 
lish communication  with  the  soviet,  so  that  food  could 
be  sent  to  relieve  the  starving  thousands  in  Russian 
cities,  especially  the  weak  women  and  the  poor,  hungry 
little  children.  The  weak  women  and  the  poor,  hungry 
little  children  have  frequently  figured  in  the  scheme 
of  things  at  the  Peace  Conference,  but  no  nation  has 
yet  approached  Eussia  without  putting  military  and 
political  conditions  with  its  offer  of  food,  or  has  pro- 
vided for  the  starving  human  beings  when  these  condi- 
tions were  not  met. 

We  have  the  statement  of  Tchitcherin  that  Dr.  Nan- 
sen  communicated  with  him  on  May  4  and  forwarded 
a  letter  from  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  President  Wilson,  and 
M.  Clemenceau,  dated  April  17.  Tchitcherin  said  that 
the  Allies  had  refused  to  submit  this  offer  by  wireless, 
and  that  it  had  finallv  come  to  him  through  the  German 


258  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Government  at  the  request  of  the  Norwegian  legation  in 
Berlin.  The  proud  sovereign  powers  whose  representa- 
tives sat  in  judgment  over  the  world  in  Paris  were 
forced  to  accept  favors  at  the  hands  of  the  German 
diplomatic  agents !  Tchitcherin  replied  that  the  soviet 
was  ready  to  negotiate  with  the  Allies,  but  regretted  the 
political  conditions  attached  to  the  offer  of  food  —  the 
cessation  of  all  military  operations  by  the  soviet.  The 
Bolsheviki  were  unwilling  to  stop  fighting,  especially 
when  they  faced  armies  of  the  Allies.  Dr.  Nansen 
might  name  the  time  and  place  for  a  conference;  the 
soviet  would  meet  him. 

Again  nothing  happened.  Tchitcherin  complained 
that  his  answer  was  treated  as  a  negative  one  and  that 
the  American  wireless  announced  that  the  soviet  had 
refused  the  offer  of  the  Peace  Conference.  He  accused 
the  Americans  of  misrepresentation  and  bad  faith. 

Publicity  would  have  saved  the  day  here.  The 
Americans  in  Paris  frequently  complained  of  the  dis- 
torted Russian  news  furnished  by  French  and  British 
news  agencies,  but  the  Nansen  affair  is  an  instance  of 
how  our  own  mission  connived  in  the  bungling  methods 
of  the  old  diplomacy.  "  Keep  it  dark  "  was  evidently 
the  motto  of  the  European  chanceries  in  all  matters 
affecting  Russia.  The  Americans  accepted  the  Euro- 
pean view  of  things  when  they  were  not  only  predisposed 
to  let  in  the  light,  but  actually  pledged  to  do  so  by  the 
first  of  the  Fourteen  Points.  American  writers  and  ob- 
servers had  to  get  many  of  their  "  tips  "  on  Russian  news 
from  the  wireless  messages  of  the  soviet  government, 
from  soviet  newspapers,  or  from  German  and  Scandi- 


THE  FOUETEElSr  POIl^TS     ,         259 

navian  newspapers,  when  they  should  have  had  them 
direct  from  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  his 
official  representatives  in  Paris.  What  America  needed 
to  know  was  exactly  what  terms  had  been  offered  and  by 
whom,  what  discussions  had  taken  place  and  to  what 
end,  and  who  had  obstructed  the  way  toward  concilia- 
tion and  peace,  and  why.  That  stand  could  have  been 
taken  by  the  American  mission  and  carried  out  success- 
fully, even  if  the  other  nations  as  punishment  withdrew 
their  support  of  the  covenant  of  the  League  of  ^N'ations. 
It  is  a  great  question  whether  an  out  and  out  American 
policy  of  this  kind  would  not  have  been  better  in  the 
long  run  than  acquiescence  to  the  prejudices  of  the  Euro- 
pean powers. 

It  is  the  method  employed  in  these  attempts  to  reach 
the  Kussian  people  that  I  am  criticizing,  not  the  pro- 
posals themselves.  That  they  were  made  will  always 
reflect  credit  on  the  American  mission.  Even  the  Bol- 
sheviki,  who  turned  their  wrath  on  the  United  States 
when  all  schemes  failed,  now  and  then  recognized  the 
disinterestedness  of  the  American  republic.  Thus 
Tchitcherin,  who,  by  the  way,  is  one  of  the  best  little 
note-writers  of  his  day,  in  the  course  of  an  article  on 
foreign  relations  made  the  following  comment  on  the 
powers : 

In  the  camp  of  those  fighting  against  us  there  are  two  tend- 
encies: one  of  these  is  opposed  to  conciliation  and  the  other  is 
conciliatory.  Our  problem  is  to  render  the  first  tendency  incapa- 
ble of  further  opposition  toward  the  other.  The  United  States  of 
America,  of  all  the  allied  powers,  was  more  friendly  to  soviet 
Russia.  At  the  time  when  the  other  powers  were  beginning  to 
intervene  President  Wilson  was  keeping  aloof.  Even  when  he 
joined  in  he  gave  in  his  appeal  to  the  Russian  people,  as  the  reason 


260  THE  ADVE:N^TURES  OF 

for  intervention,  a  narrower  purpose  than  that  of  England,  point- 
ing out  the  necessity  of  the  aid  which  must  be  rendered  to  the 
Czecho-Slovaks,  and  the  need  for  guarding  the  military  stores. 
America  more  than  any  other  country  is  interested  in  preserving 
one  undivided  Russian  economic  organization,  and  is  by  no  means 
interested  in  weakening  Russia. 

America  did  not  agree  with  the  plans  of  the  allied  imperialists  to 
divide  Russia  into  spheres  of  influence  and  with  the  Anglo-French 
plan  of  exploiting  Russia  by  means  of  an  English  or  French  cen- 
tral bank.  America  continued  to  uphold  the  point  of  view  of  non- 
intervention in  Russian  matters.  At  the  present  moment  America 
is  the  first  country  from  which  peace  messages  reach  us.  The 
declarations  of  some  of  the  more  influential  senators  belonging  to 
both  leading  parties  demanded  an  end  to  intervention,  to  which 
the  chairman  of  the  committee  on  foreign  relations.  Senator  Hitch- 
cock, could  not  give  a  straightforward  answer.  Among  the  strong- 
est allied  powers  America  would  be  most  inclined  to  enter  into  an 
agreement  with  Russia. 

The  next  chapter  in  the  remarkable  story  of  the  Peace 
Conference  and  Russia  deals  with  the  attempt  to  gain 
recognition  for  the  Omsk  government,  at  the  head  of 
which  was  Admiral  Koltchak. 

The  American  Government  had  taken  the  lead  in  vir- 
tually all  the  dealings  with  the  soviet  government.  It 
was  now  the  turn  of  the  Russians  in  Paris  to  press  for 
recognition  of  Admiral  Koltchak,  who  was  regarded  as 
the  strongest  of  all  the  anti-Bolshevist  leaders  in  Russia. 
The  Koltchak  armies  made  considerable  progress  up  to 
June.  In  replying  to  questions  raised  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  Winston  Churchill,  British  secretary  of  state 
for  war,  said  that  Great  Britain  had  called  the  Omsk 
government  into  existence,  but  that  its  contribution  to 
the  admiral's  operations  was  limited  to  the  supply  of 
munitions  sent  to  his  armies.  He  said  that  the  value  of 
the  munitions  sent  to  Admiral  Koltchak  and  General 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POmXS  261 

Denikin  reached  about  20,000,000  pounds,  or  $960,- 
000,000. 

General  Denikin  is  head  of  the  so-called  volunteer 
army,  which  is  cooperating  with  the  Kuban  government 
at  Ekaterinodar,  of  which  General  Dragomirov  is  presi- 
dent and  M.  Sazonov  minister  of  foreign  affairs.  Gen- 
eral Denikin  was  an  intimate  friend  of  General  Korni- 
lov  and  escaped  with  the  latter  to  the  Don  region  when 
Kerensky  indicted  them.  Denikin  began  his  fight 
against  the  soviet  with  an  army  of  three  hundred  officers, 
who  served  as  privates.  His  army  is  now  estimated  at  a 
strength  of  300,000  bayonets  and  sabers  in  regular  mili- 
tary units.  Denikin  favors  a  constituent  assembly  and 
recognizes  Koltchak  as  his  superior. 

A  strong  effort  to  present  a  united  front  was  made  by 
the  representatives  of  a  large  number  of  the  anti-soviet 
Russian  governments  in  Paris.  In  May  they  called  a 
Eussian  political  conference  at  which  they  discussed 
means  for  getting  Allied  help.  They  declared  them- 
selves against  the  restoration  of  the  czarist  regime  and 
said  that  they  wanted  the  peasant  class  to  keep  the  land. 
They  wanted  the  Russian  people  to  vote  on  their  own 
form  of  government  by  means  of  a  constituent  assembly, 
elected  under  legitimate  conditions.  The  various  de 
facto  governments  would  hand  their  power  over  to  the 
national  assembly  when  the  Bolshevists  had  been  driven 
out.  This  conference  included  Prince  Lvoff  as  presi- 
dent ;  M.  Tchaikovsky,  M.  Sazonov ;  M.  Bakhmetieff,  M. 
Giers,  Maklakov,  and  Stakhovich,  Russian  ambassadors 
at  Washington,  Rome,  Paris,  and  Madrid;  M.  Gulke- 


262  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

vich,  minister  at  Stockholm,  and  M.  Efremov,  minister 
at  Bern ;  M.  Xabokov,  charge  d'affaires  at  London ;  M. 
Dolgopolov,  member  of  the  Kuban  government;  M. 
Ivanov  and  M.  Titov,  members  of  the  Union  for  the 
Eegeneration  of  Russia ;  M.  Struve,  member  of  the  na- 
tional center;  General  Cherbachev,  representing  the 
Russian  armies,  and  General  Golovin,  his  chief  of  staff, 
and  a  number  of  other  leaders. 

The  negotiations  between  the  Peace  Conference  and 
Admiral  Koltchak  were  carried  on  at  Omsk  through  the 
Erench  charge  d'affaires,  M.  Martel,  and  in  Paris 
through  M.  Sazonov.  The  Peace  Conference  made 
eight  conditions  which  were  to  become  the  basis  for 
supporting  Admiral  Koltchak  against  the  other  claim- 
ants in  Russia:  (1)  the  summoning  of  a  constituent 
assembly,  chosen  as  the  supreme  legislature  for  Russia 
through  a  free,  secret,  and  democratic  franchise;  (2) 
free  elections  to  all  local  bodies,  such  as  municipalities 
and  zemstvos;  (3)  a  pledge  that  the  czaristic  regime 
will  not  be  reestablished,  that  civil  and  religious  liberty 
will  prevail,  and  that  the  former  land  system  will  not  be 
restored;  (4)  recognition  of  the  independence  of  Fin- 
land and  Poland,  disputes  over  their  frontiers  to  be  set- 
tled by  the  League  of  Nations;  (5)  autonomy  to  be  ex- 
tended to  Esthonia,  Livonia,  Lithuania,  the  Caucasian, 
and  Transcaucasian  governments,  the  League  of  Na- 
tions to  be  consulted  in  the  event  their  relations  to  the 
Russian  Government  are  not  clearly  agreed  upon;  (6) 
recognition  of  the  right  of  the  Peace  Conference  to 
determine  the  future  of  the  Rumanian  part  of  Bessara- 
bia; (7)  Russia  to  join  the  League  of  Nations  and  to 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  263 

cooperate  in  the  limitation  of  armaments  and  military 
organizations;  (8)  recognition  of  Russia's  debt  to  for- 
eign countries,  made  before  and  during  the  war.  The 
conference  further  said : 

Some  of  the  allied  and  associated  governments  are  now  being 
pressed  to  withdraw  their  troops  and  to  incur  no  further  expense 
in  Russia  on  the  ground  that  continued  intervention  shows  no 
prospect  of  producing  an  early  settlement.  They  are  prepared, 
however,  to  continue  their  assistance  on  the  lines  laid  down  below 
provided  they  are  satisfied  that  it  will  really  help  the  Russian 
people  to  liberty,  self-government  and  peace,  and  provided  also 
that  they  receive  from  Admiral  Koltchak  and  his  associates  defi- 
nite guarantees  that  their  policy  has  the  same  objects  in  view  as 
that  of  the  allied  and  associated  powers. 

Admiral  Koltchak's  reply  was  made  public  June  l-i. 
He  declared  that  he  would  fix  the  date  for  elections  to 
the  constituent  assembly  when  the  Bolsheviki  were  defi- 
nitely crushed.  A  commission  was  now  at  work  pre- 
paring the  preliminaries  on  a  basis  of  universal  suffrage. 
He  considered  himself  responsible  to  the  constituent  as- 
sembly and  would  hand  over  all  his  powers  to  it.  He 
objected  to  the  reestablishment  of  the  assembly  of  1917, 
which  had  been  chosen  under  Bolshevist  violence.  He 
was  ready  to  discuss  disarmament  and  all  kindred  inter- 
national questions,  but  he  believed  the  final  decision 
should  be  made  by  the  constituent  assembly.  He  rec- 
ognized the  independence  of  Poland,  leaving  discussion 
of  frontiers  to  the  constituent  assembly.  As  to  Finland 
he  said,  "  We  are  disposed  at  once  to  recognize  the  de 
facto  government  of  Finland,  but  the  final  solution  of 
the  Finnish  questions  must  belong  to  the  constituent 
assembly."  He  agreed  to  a  solution  of  the  questions 
involving  Esthonia,  Livonia,  and  the  other  states,  "  see- 


264  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

ing  that  the  government  is  assuring,  as  from  the  pres- 
ent time,  the  autonomy  of  the  various  nationalities." 
He  wished  to  take  up  each  case  separately,  however,  and 
agreed  that  his  government  was  ready  to  have  recourse 
to  the  ''  good  offices  of  the  League  of  Nations."  The 
same  conditions  applied  to  Bessarabia.  He  repeated  the 
declaration  of  November  27,  1918,  by  which  his  govern- 
ment accepted  the  burden  of  the  Russian  national  debt. 
As  the  most  careful  scrutiny  was  given  to  the  statement 
of  his  opposition  to  the  reestablishment  of  a  reactionary 
regime  I  give  it  here  in  full : 

As  regards  the  question  of  internal  politics,  which  can  only 
interest  the  powers  so  far  as  they  reflect  the  political  tendencies 
of  the  Russian  government,  I  make  a  point  of  rej)eating  that  there 
cannot  be  a  return  to  the  regime  which  existed  in  Russia  before 
February,  1917.  The  provisional  solution  which  my  Government 
has  adopted  in  regard  to  the  agrarian  question  aims  at  satisfying 
the  interests  of  the  great  mass  of  the  ])opulation,  and  is  inspired 
by  the  conviction  that  Russia  can  only  be  flourishing  and  strong 
when  the  millions  of  Russian  peasants  receive  all  guarantees  for 
the  possession  of  the  land.  Similarly  as  regards  the  regime  to  be 
applied  to  the  liberated  territories,  the  government,  far  from 
placing  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  free  election  of  local  assem- 
blies, municipalities  and  zemstvos,  regards  the  activities  of  these 
bodies  and  also  the  development  of  the  principle  of  self-govern- 
ment as  the  necessary  conditions  for  the  reconstruction  of  the 
country,  and  is  already  actually  giving  them  its  support  and  help 
by  all  the  means  at  its  disposal. 

In  making  public  this  reply  of  Admiral  Koltchak 
the  Council  of  Five  of  the  Peace  Conference  said : 

The  allied  and  associated  powers  wish  to  acknowledge  receipt 
of  Admiral  Koltchak's  reply  to  their  note  of  May  26.  They  wel- 
come the  tone  of  that  reply,  which  seems  to  them  to  be  in  substan- 
tial agreement  with  the  propositions  which  they  had  made  and  to 
contain  satisfactory  assurances  for  the  freedom,  self-government 
and  peace  of  the  Russian  people  and  their  neighbors.     They  are, 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  265 

therefore,  willing  to  extend  to  Admiral  Koltchak  and  his  associ- 
ates the  support  set  forth  in  their  original  letter. 

This  statement  was  signed  by  D.  Lloyd  George, 
Woodrow  Wilson,  G.  Clemenceau,  V.  E.  Orlando,  and 
N.  Makino. 

Was  this  a  recognition  of  Admiral  Koltchak  as  the 
head  of  the  legitimate  de  facto  Russian  government? 
The  Allied  newspapers  for  the  most  part  said,  ^^  Yes." 
The  "  Temps  "  pointed  out  that  the  decision  was  a  sol- 
emn covenant  and  a  declaration  of  policy  — "  a  covenant 
to  oppose  Bolshevist  tyranny,  which  serves  German  in- 
terests, and  a  policy  of  reconstruction  and  national  unity 
for  Russia."  But  the  ^'  Times  "  of  London  recognized 
that  this  was  not  actually  recognition.  ^'  The  Allies 
have  practically  recognized  the  national  government  of 
Russia  presided  over  by  Admiral  Koltchak,"  said  the 
"  Times."  "  It  would  have  been  wiser,  as  well  as  more 
manly,  had  they  made  the  recognition  formally  and 
frankly.  Why  not  call  the  step  by  its  true  name  ? " 
The  ''  Times  "  went  on  to  say  that  ^'  the  excessive  timid- 
ity with  which  the  recognition  is  made  does  not  destroy 
its  importance." 

Important  influences  were  at  work  in  the  United 
States  and  elsewhere  to  prevent  out-and-out  recognition 
of  Koltchak,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  proposed  recogni- 
tion was  materially  weakened  in  effect  and  virtually 
made  negligible  by  the  opposition  to  Koltchak  among 
other  Russian  groups,  which  pictured  him  as  a  reaction- 
ary, surrounded  by  members  of  the  old  czaristic  regime 
and  by  landholders  who  wanted  their  great  estates  back. 
The  socialists  of  France  in  large  measure  also  opposed 


266  THE  ADVE:N^TURES  OF 

Koltchak.  Avksentiev,  who  had  been  head  of  the  Omsk 
directory,  which  was  overthrown  by  Admiral  Koitchak 
by  force  in  what  is  commonly  called  the  Omsk  coup 
d'etat,  also  led  a  formidable  opposition.  The  cnarges 
against  Koitchak  varied.  His  troops  w^re  accused  of 
atrocities  similar  to  those  charged  against  the  Bolshe- 
viki.  It  is  known  that  charges  of  this  character  were 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Americans.  The  most 
severe  blow  to  the  prestige  of  Koitchak  came  from  a 
group  of  Russian  social  revolutionaries  and  was  the 
sequel  to  the  Omsk  coup  d'etat.  An  appeal  to  the  de- 
mocracy of  the  world  was  issued  by  the  following  mem- 
bers of  the  first  all-Russian  constituent  assembly:  A. 
Kerensky,  ^NT.  Avksentiev,  V.  Zenzinov,  A.  Argunov,  E. 
Rogovsky,  O.  Minor,  B.  Sokolov,  M.  Slonim;  by  M. 
Ivanov,  president,  and  M.  Delevsky,  secretary  of  the 
Paris  section  of  the  Union  for  the  Regeneration  of  Rus- 
sia, and  by  M.  Peskin,  president,  and  M.  Rosenfeld, 
secretary,  for  the  Russian  Republican  League  in  Paris. 
The  appeal  asked  the  non-recognition  of  any  government 
in  Russia  of  the  nature  of  a  personal  or  class  dictator- 
ship, particularly  a  military  one,  which  does  not  bow  to 
the  people's  will  nor  establish  a  democratic  govern- 
ment. No  foreign  intervention  is  to  be  countenanced. 
The  powers  should  help  with  materials  and  food  stuffs 
only  those  governments  in  Russia  that  agree  to  convoke 
an  all-Russian  constituent  assembly  ^'  immediately  after 
the  cessation  of  civil  war  on  the  basis  of  universal, 
direct,  equal  and  secret  suffrage."  Eood  is  to  be  dis- 
tributed by  a  neutral  organization  and  not  to  be  used  for 


THE  FOUKTEEIT  POINTS  267 

a  political  purpose.  A  mission  is  to  be  sent  to  Kussia 
forming  a  united  representation  of  the  free  nations,  and 
including  representatives  of  organized  labor  and  democ- 
racy, to  explain  the  democratic  aims  of  the  powers  and 
to  assure  the  people  of  Russia  that  the  help  is  for  their 
own  good.  The  appeal  brought  considerable  opposition 
from  elements  favorable  to  Koltchak,  who  criticized  the 
participation  of  Kerensky  in  this  movement.  ^^  La 
Cause  Commune  "  of  Paris  wrote  on  May  28  that  this 
was  an  attempt  to  serve  Koltchak  as  Kornilov  was  served 
by  Kerensky.  "  Beware  of  them ! ''  said  this  paper. 
M.  Gauvain,  writing  in  the  ^'  Journal  des  Debats,"  said : 
"  It  contains  a  germ  of  anarchy  as  fatal  as  that  of 
Kerensky.  It  proposes  a  mission  to  Russia.  This 
means  a  mission  of  world  Soviets.  It  would  simply 
take  disturbance  into  Russia  instead  of  calm,  and  bring 
back  into  Europe  all  the  Leninist  microbes.  It  would 
be  a  triumph  for  Lenine.  One  recognizes  the  hand  of 
Kerensky."  "  Ilumanite,"  on  the  other  hand,  ex- 
pressed its  sympathy  with  the  appeal.  In  the  course  of 
the  next  few  weeks  military  reverses  seriously  affected 
the  hope  the  Allies  had  placed  in  Koltchak  and  with  the 
arrival  in  Paris  of  Frank  Polk,  Under-Secretary  of 
State,  to  take  charge  of  the  American  mission  w^ith  the 
departure  of  President  Wilson  and  Secretary  Lansing, 
negotiations  with  Koltchak  became  little  more  than  a 
discussion.  In  the  meantime  the  Americans  were  still 
interested  in  their  effort  to  have  Dr.  Nansen  take  charge 
of  food  distribution  in  Russia  and  were  said  to  be  work- 
ing energetically  with  their  colleagues  in  Paris  to  have 


268  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

the  food  blockade  lifted.  Because  the  soviet  govern- 
ment would  not  agree  to  call  a  constituent  assembly  or 
cease  fighting,  matters  remained  at  a  deadlock. 

It  is  pertinent  in  this  connection  to  direct  attention 
to  the  statement  regarding  Eussia  made  by  Lieutenant- 
General  J.  C.  Smuts  in  London  in  his  farewell  letter  to 
the  English  people  upon  his  departure  for  South  Africa. 
The  letter  was  in  itself  a  remarkable  resume  of  condi- 
tions in  Europe  and  the  action  of  the  Peace  Conference, 
and  deserves  wide  reading.  That  part  relating  to  Rus- 
sia follows : 

Russia  is  an  even  more  obscure  and  difficult  problem  than  Ger- 
many, and  one  on  which  no  dogmatic  opinion  would  be  justified. 
But  from  all  the  information  which  has  come  into  my  possession 
I  am  seriously  doubtful  about  the  sort  of  policy  which  we  seem 
to  be  pursuing  there.  Russia  can  only  be  saved  internally  by  the 
Russians  themselves,  working  on  Russian  methods  and  ideas.  She 
is  a  case  of  national  pathology,  of  a  people  with  a  sick  soul,  and 
only  Russian  ideas  could  work  a  cure.  Our  military  forces,  our 
lavish  contributions  of  tanks  and  other  war  material,  may  tempo- 
rarily bolster  up  the  one  side,  but  the  real  magnitude  of  the  prob- 
lem is  quite  beyond  such  expedients. 

Leave  Russia  alone,  remove  the  blockade,  adopt  a  friendly  neu- 
trality and  Gallio-like  impartiality  to  all  fractions.  It  may  well 
be  that  the  only  ultimate  hope  for  Russia  is  a  sobered,  purified 
soviet  system,  and  that  may  be  far  better  than  the  czarism  to 
which  our  present  policy  seems  inevitably  tending.  If  we  have 
to  appear  on  the  Russian  scene  at  all,  let  it  be  as  impartial 
benevolent  friends  and  helpers,  and  not  as  military  and  political 
partisans.  Be  patient  with  sick  Russia,  give  her  time  and  sym- 
pathy, and  await  the  results  of  her  convalescence." 

One  might  say  that  General  Smuts  has  put  in  a  nut- 
shell the  best  thought  of  the  President  and  the  keenest 
minds  in  the  American  mission.  That  America  has  not 
been  able  wholly  to  make  her  views  prevail  is  patent  to 
the  Russians  and  to  the  world.     The  generations  of  the 


THE  FOUKTEEN^  POINTS  269 

future  will  place  the  blame,  and,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will 
absolve  the  peoples  of  the  western  European  democra- 
cies from  complicity  in  the  imperialistic  crimes  of  their 
leaders. 


CHAPTEE  XIV 

Walks  in  the  Paris  of  the  conference,  and  how  they  led  to  haunts 
of  another  day. 

A  STRANGER  in  Paiis,  walking  along  the  Boulevard 
St.-Germain,  would  never  notice  it,  this  wide-arched 
doorway  in  an  apartment-building  that  apparently  leads 
to  nothing  but  a  dingy  court.  The  boulevard  is  wide 
and  inviting,  a  street  redolent  of  modernity;  its  shops 
are  of  the  eighties  and  nineties  and  later  times,  and  the 
fagade  of  the  university  surely  has  nothing  in  common 
with  the  days  of  old.  But  Paris  is  full  of  surprises, 
which  you  come  upon  in  the  most  commonplace  of  mod- 
ern streets,  and  there  is  a  surprise  awaiting  you  if, 
forgetting  the  boulevard  that  builders  of  a  later  age  drew 
like  a  straight  line  through  the  very  heart  of  the  Paris 
of  the  Revolution,  you  turn  aside  from  its  broad  pave- 
ments and  seek  the  little  dingy  paths,  the  lanes,  and  by- 
ways, like  the  passage  that  lies  behind  this  arched  door- 
way. 

For  a  moment  I  was  in  darkness,  and  then  again  in 
light,  and  it  seemed  as  if  I  had  left  Paris  behind  me, 
for  I  stood  in  a  narrow  street  that  was  not  likely  to 
admit  more  than  one  cart  and  horse  at  a  time.  The 
high  building  lay  behind  me  and  effectively  shut  out 
modern  Paris,  with  its  noise  and  activity ;  before  me  and 
on  each  hand  were  little  one-and-a-half  and  two-storied 
houses,   with   quaint   dormer-windows   stuck   here   and 

370 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  271 

there  in  the  roofs,  and  old  potted  chimneys  —  like  the 
pictures  of  the  city  one  encountered  in  old  prints  along 
the  Rue  Bonaparte  and  on  the  quays.  The  windows 
were  quaint,  too,  long  and  narrow,  or  small,  with  little 
square  panes,  and  here  and  there  the  glass  was  missing, 
and  a  yellow  bit  of  paper  kept  out  the  elements.  I 
picked  my  way  carefully  over  the  cobbled  walk.  I 
was  in  Revolutionary  Paris. 

A  Y.  M.  C.  A.  man  in  khaki,  with  the  red  triangle  on 
his  cap,  came  out  of  an  adjoining  passage.  He  nodded. 
"  So  you  have  found  it,  too,  have  you  ?  "  he  asked. 
"Isn't  it  wonderful,  this  little  bit  of  old  Paris! 
Haussmann  must  have  forgotten  about  it;  he  tore  out 
everything  else.  They  are  still  drawing  rent  out  of 
these  ancient  barracks.     Come  with  me." 

I  followed  him  down  the  passage  and  through  a  wide 
gate  under  a  house  that  seemed  four  stories  high.  A 
tiny  court  lay  beyond.  Artists  lived  there  now,  and 
milliners  and  all  sorts  of  laboring  folk.  There  were 
sketches  and  pastels  in  the  windows,  and  a  little  sign 
called  for  girls  to  make  artificial  flowers. 

"  Don't  trip  over  that  iron,'  he  warned,  pointing  to  a 
piece  that  stood  about  a  foot  out  from  the  wall. 
"  That 's  the  old  step  the  horsemen  used  to  mount  by  in 
the  days  when  the  archbishops  of  Rouen  had  their  palace 
in  this  building.  See  that  window  with  the  iron  grill  ? 
That 's  where  they  put  Charlotte  Corday  the  day  she 
killed  Marat.  Quite  a  long  time  ago  it  was,  and  I 
don't  suppose  the  old  place  has  changed  a  bit  since  she 
stood  with  disheveled  hair  and  looked  out  through  those 
iron  bars." 


272  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

The  blows  of  a  smith's  hammer  sounded  close  hj,  and 
we  turned  the  corner  of  the  passage  to  a  forge,  in- 
stalled in  one  of  the  buildings  on  the  narrow  lane.  He 
had  been  there  a  long  time,  the  smith,  and  he  was  busy 
now,  as  he  had  been  for  years,  repairing  locks  and 
mending  old,  decrepit  bicycles.  There  was  that  within 
his  little  shop  which  had  witnessed  scenes  in  the  history 
of  old  Paris  even  long  before  the  days  of  Kobespierre. 
It  was  a  great  round  tower,  with  walls  fully  two  feet 
thick,  against  which  he  had  built  his  forge,  and  in  which 
he  stored  his  iron  and  steel. 

"  It 's  an  old  tower,"  he  said.  ^^Go  inside  if  you 
wish.  It 's  very  old,  but  how  old  nobody  knows,  no- 
body knows." 

Nobody,  except  such  able  students  of  old  Paris  as 
Georges  Cain,  the  regretted  conservateur  of  the  Museum 
Carnavalet,  whose  remarkable  research  has  opened  the 
heart  of  old  Paris  to  all  the  world,  for  the  old  stone 
tower  around  which  this  house  of  revolutionary  days  had 
been  built  was  erected  by  Philippe-Auguste  as  part  of 
the  walls  of  another  Paris  —  a  Paris  not  yet  become  the 
capital  of  a  united  France. 

We  walked  up  the  lane  to  the  boulevard  again,  and 
as  we  surveyed  the  buildings  on  each  hand  the  '^  Y  " 
man  spoke  up: 

"  Here  's  No.  9.  Closed  up  now.  But  you  can  see 
that  until  it  closed  it  was  still  a  circulating  library. 
Yes,  still  full  of  books.  Well,  in  that  shop  Durel  had 
his  library  in  1790,  and  here  one  day  came  a  deputy 
named  Guillotine  with  the  model  of  a  strange  instrument 
invented  by  an  Italian  physician  named  Albert.     It 


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THE  TWO  "white  HOUSES      OF  PARIS 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  273 

was  here  that  they  first  tried  it  on  a  sheep  —  in  this  very 
building.  They  called  it  a  ^  philanthropic  machine  for 
decapitation.'  Think  of  that  for  a  story !  And  at  No. 
8  the  widow  Brissot  had  her  collection  of  books  on  juris- 
prudence belonging  to  the  Girondists  who  had  been  guil- 
lotined. And  there  was  a  printery  close  by ;  should  be 
here.     Let 's  look  around." 

From  somewhere  came  the  clanking  of  a  printing- 
press.  It  was  close  at  hand.  We  followed  the  sound. 
There  was  a  door  close  to  the  court  that  led  to  the 
boulevard,  and  a  sign-board  with  the  word  '^  Impri- 
merie."  We  pushed  open  the  door  and  stepped  in- 
side. 

It  was  still  a  printing-shop.  In  an  adjoining  room 
was  running  the  press  that  we  had  heard,  and  here  an- 
other small  press  stood  ready  to  receive  the  forms.  Sev- 
eral men  wearing  long  white  aprons  were  bending  over 
proof,  and  here  and  there  lay  a  large  lithographing 
stone. 

^'  Is  this  the  printery  ?  "  we  asked  uselessly. 

"  Yes,"  said  one  of  the  workmen. 

"  And  was  this  not  the  place  where  the  Marshal  Brune 
had  his  printery  in  the  days  of  the  Eevolution  ?  " 

"  Ah,  yes,  it  is  here." 

"  The  very  same  ?  " 

^'  The  very  same." 

'^  And  here  was  printed  in  1793  ^  L'ami  du  Peuple  ' 
of  Marat  ?  "  » 

^'  Yes,  Messieurs/' 

'^  And  you  are  printing  to-day !  A  journal,  per- 
haps ?  " 


274  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

^^  Xo,  Messieurs;  documents  for  the  Congress  of  the 
Peace." 

And  thus  the  world  of  yesterday  is  just  around  the 
corner  of  a  modern  street  in  Paris. 

I  stopped  at  a  book-shop  in  the  Boulevard  St.-Martin 
to-day  and  asked  the  dealer  for  livres  historiques. 
The  man  shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  with  a  gesture 
directed  me  to  one  side  of  his  establishment,  where  they 
were  piled  up  to  the  ceiling  row  on  row,  and  at  times 
two  rows  to  a  shelf;  a  great  wealth  of  historical  litera- 
ture, of  books  on  armies,  of  discussions  of  military  cam- 
paigns, of  old  diaries  and  memoirs,  the  backstair  gossip 
of  the  kingly  courts,  the  amours,  the  intrigues,  the  con- 
fessions. Trade  has  been  slow  during  the  war,  I 
thought,  and  these  books  probably  have  stood  here  un- 
disturbed since  the  last  tourist  fled  in  the  first  days  of 
August,  1914.  But  I  was  mistaken  about  that.  Some 
of  the  books,  it  is  true,  had  broken  backs  and  besmudged 
covers,  but  many  were  plainly  new;  they  shone  forth 
resplendent  in  their  bright  coats  of  canary  yellow,  green, 
and  blue  paper,  and  the  dates  1917  and  1918  on  their 
backs  proved  that  amid  the  tremendous  effort  of  fighting 
for  life  French  publishers  had  gone  quietly  forward 
adding  to  their  Uhrairies. 

For  a  long  time  I  had  been  partial  to  the  story  of  the 
Congress  of  Vienna,  and  the  Peace  Conference  in  Paris 
had  only  whetted  my  appetite.  What  joy,  then,  to  find 
here  two  big  tomes  that  were  a  monument  to  the  indus- 
try of  Commandant  M.  II.  Weil ;  a  transcription  of  the 
records  of  the  secret  police  during  the  Congress  of  Vi- 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  275 

enna,  taken  from  the  original  documents  in  the  archives 
of  the  imperial  ministry  of  the  interior  at  Vienna,  and 
published  now  under  the  title,  "  Les  Dessous  du  Congres 
de  Vienne." 

Hastily  I  turned  the  pages.  I  almost  knew  what  I 
would  find  in  these  documents  of  the  Polizei  Ilofstelle. 
And  mentally,  as  I  read  the  lines,  I  compared  the  situa- 
tion then  with  the  situation  now  at  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence. Were  men  shadowing  the  delegates  in  Paris  to- 
day? Were  the  secret  police  of  the  French  Govern- 
ment, among  the  most  efficient  in  the  world,  reporting 
daily,  as  these  men  had  done,  and  perhaps  sending  their 
reports  to  M.  Clemenceau,  as  these  reports  went  to  the 
Emperor  Joseph  and  Prince  von  Mettemich?  Who 
shall  say  ?  Perhaps  it  was  not  for  nothing  that  the 
British  delegation  came  to  Paris  with  its  own  locks  and 
keys  and  its  own  force  of  locksmiths. 

If  so,  what  jolly  times  for  the  historian  of  the  future ! 
For  instance,  suppose  the  secret  police  of  to-day  pro- 
duced the  counterparts  of  reports  such  as  this : 

Credits  opened  by  the  sovereigns  at  the  principal  banking  houses 
of  Vienna  —  At  the  house  of  Fries:  Emperor  of  Russia,  100,000 
rubles;  King  of  Prussia,  no  limit;  dukes  of  Weimar,  Oldenburg, 
Mecklenburg,  each  5999  florins;  Prince  de  Wrede,  100,000  florins. 

Or  dealt  with  trivialities,  like  this: 

Prince  Troubetzkov,  having  a  sore  foot,  remained  home. 

Or  the  elements  of  intrigue,  like  this : 

The  covered  staircase  of  the  apartments  of  Alexander  leads  not 
to  one  of  the  courts,  but  to  three  chambers  on  the  first  story 
giving  upon  the  grand  staircase  and  occupied  by  one  of  the  aides- 
de-camp  of  the  sovereign.  It  is  probable  that  the  Poles  enter  the 
house  of  the  emperor  by  this  passage  when  he  wishes  to  see  thenri. 


276  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Or  the  stuff  of  which  romance  is  made,  like  this : 

Alexander,  invited  to  the  home  of  the  Princess  Bagration  for 
Saturday,  went  there  last  evening  after  the  "  at  home  "  and  sup- 
per to  make  a  call.  The  porter  rang  four  times  to  announce  him, 
and  the  princess,  who  had  closed  her  door  to  guests  the  whole  day, 
went  in  negligee  to  the  staircase.  Upon  hearing  the  voice  of  Alex- 
ander, she  excused  herself  in  confusion  and  begged  him  to  enter 
the  room,  where  Alexander  perceived  a  man's  hat.  A  great  and 
amusing  explanation  followed.  "  It  is  that  of  the  decorator 
Moreau,"  finally  said  the  princess;  "he  is  the  man  who  is  deco- 
rating the  house  for  to-morrow's  festival."  The  czar  remained 
two  and  a  half  hours  at  the  house  of  the  princess.  Honi  soil  qui 
mal  y  pense! 

What  opportunities  the  journalists  missed  in  those 
good  old  days ! 

The  man  who  first  told  me  about  it  called  it  a  con- 
gress, and  said  that  it  would  be  attended  by  men  from 
all  quarters  of  the  earth.  The  Grand  Hotel  was  to  pro- 
vide the  setting,  he  said,  but  all  the  world  would  be  the 
audience,  because  what  this  congress  would  discuss 
would  affect  the  fortunes  of  all  the  world.  I  thought 
it  proper  to  give  an  indulgent  ear,  for  my  informant 
was  from  Chicago,  and  one  is  always  partial,  to  some 
extent  at  least,  to  fellow-sufferers.  But  he  was  also  in- 
sistent. He  said  that  although  I  might  consider  the 
Peace  Conference  the  greatest  deliberative  body  in  the 
world,  I  had  not  made  the  fullest  use  of  my  opportuni- 
ties did  I  ignore  his  congress. 

With  something  like  an  air  of  condescension  T  agreed 
to  go.  It  was  to  be  held  in  the  Grand  Hotel,  and  that 
might  provide  a  story.     Anything  might  happen  in  the 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  277 

Grand  Hotel,  seeing  that  the  Paris  wing  of  the  Irish 
republic  and  Samuel  Gompers  lived  there. 

The  room  where  the  congress  was  to  be  held  was  one 
of  those  overladen^ Paris  salons  sometimes  used  for 
French  birthday  celebrations,  and  gastronomical  orgies 
like  unto  those  of  Rome.  But  there  was  a  long  green 
table  in  the  room  now,  and  here  and  there  were  blotting- 
pads,  pens  and  ink,  in  preparation  for  a  session.  The 
room  was  already  half  full  of  men.  Most  of  them  were 
in  the  uniform  of  the  American  Army;  some  wore  the 
French  horizon  blue,  and  here  and  there  I  spied  the 
Croix  de  Guerre.  Others  were  attired  in  well-fitting 
Prince  Alberts.  My  guide  introduced  me  to  an  Ameri- 
can major  of  infantry.  There  was  also  a  captain  of  a 
machine-gun  company,  and  several  men  who  carried  the 
badge  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  The  men  were  discussing  the 
valor  of  various  units  of  the  American  Army  and  their 
conduct  under  fire.  I  could  see  their  eyes  sparkle  with 
enthusiasm  as  they  developed  their  subject. 

*'  Why  are  you  meeting  here  in  Paris  ?  "  I  asked. 

^^  It  seemed  the  easiest  manner  of  placing  our  claims 
before  the  Peace  Conference,"  said  the  major  of  infan- 
try. ''  Besides,  a  good  many  of  us  are  here  now  on 
military  business,  and  so  could  not  call  a  congress  in  the 
States." 

^'  Your  aim  — "  I  continued. 

^'  Justice,"  he  said  — ^'  justice  and  humanity ;  to  build 
up  and  strengthen  the  forces  of  civilization.  A  code  of 
protection  for  men,  much  like  the  code  of  protection  for 
labor." 


278  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

''  Tell  me  all  about  it/'  I  asked,  and  between  the 
major  and  the  captain  and  a  popular  lecturer  this  is  the 
story  they  told  me : 

''  In  general,  we  are  going  to  ask  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence not  to  permit  any  one  nation  to  wipe  out  the  tradi- 
tions and  customs  of  a  people  by  refusing  to  let  the 
original  inhabitants  learn  their  own  language  in  the 
schools.  We  are  going  to  ask  also  that  the  land  be  not 
exploited  or  farmed  out  to  strangers,  absentee  landlords, 
and  the  like,  but  that  provision  be  made  that  the  original 
settlers,  many  of  whom  may  not  yet  have  developed  ca- 
pacity for  self-government,  be  given  the  opportunity 
to  own  the  land  when  they  can  profitably  develop  it. 
We  want  the  conference  to  limit  mandatory  and  colo- 
nizing nations  so  that  they  will  not  exhaust  the  natural 
wealth  of  the  country  and  then  turn  out  the  peoples  who 
have  the  right  to  live  there.  We  want  schools  provided 
at  public  expense  to  teach  populations  the  language  they 
wish  to  be  taught.  We  want  the  conference  to  decree 
that  modern  medicine  and  hygiene  must  always  be  intro- 
duced, that  proper  hospitals  must  be  provided,  that  self- 
government  must  be  extended  where  the  people  are  ready 
for  it,  that  no  particular  religion  be  imposed  upon  them, 
that  they  be  given  equality  and  justice  before  the  courts 
and  in  industrial  enterprises,  according  to  their  ability 
and  desert." 

"  How  does  it  strike  you  ?  "  said  the  major. 

"  Sounds  reasonable,"  I  replied.  ^'  Do  you  think 
there  is  still  need  for  drawing  up  such  safeguards  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  the  captain,  slowly,  ''  I  still  think  men 
are  not  fair  to  their  less-educated  brethren.     I  believe 


THE  F0URTJ:EN  POmTS  279 

simple  justice  is  not  always  meted  out.  I  think  the 
Peace  Conference  should  formally  recognize  that." 

"  All  over  the  world  ? ''  I  asked. 

"  Yes,"  he  replied.  ^'  Of  course,"  he  added,  "  I  do 
not  mean  that  the  conference  should  necessarily  inter- 
fere with  the  sovereign  rights  of  a  state.  I  am  thinking 
primarily  of  colonies.  It  is  true,  for  instance,  that  in 
the  United  States  justice  is  not  always  meted  out. 
There  are  many  instances  of  oppression.  But  that  is  a 
matter  between  x\merican  citizens.  We  —  you  and  I 
—  w^ill  adjust  that.  We  have  our  legal  bill  of  rights; 
the  Constitution  grants  the  same  privileges  to  every  citi- 
zen. But  there  are  great  populations  which  don't  have 
that.  They  are  absolutely  dependent  upon  the  ruling 
power." 

"  How  do  you  explain  man's  inhumanity  to  man  ?  " 
I  asked. 

"  Prejudice,"  he  replied  abruptly. 

"  We  should  be  beyond  that,"  I  said. 

He  laughed  at  that. 

^^  You  would  not  believe  me,"  he  replied,  '^  if  I  gave 
you  some  concrete  examples  that  have  come  to  my  no- 
tice.* For  instance,  I  know  the  case  of  a  man  who  is  as 
good  as  any  other  man  before  the  law.  He  wore  the 
American  Y.  M.  C.  A.  uniform.  He  found  excellent 
quarters  at  a  first-class  French  hotel.  He  moved  to  an 
American  hotel  in  one  of  the  back  areas  where  troops 
pass.     The  man  in  charge  whispered  to  him: 

^'  ^  Sorry,  old  man,  but  I  can't  put  you  up.  These 
men  here  object  to  you.'  " 

"Why?  "I  asked. 


280  THE  ADVENTUEES  OE 

"  Prejudice,"  replied  the  army  man.  ^'  I  can  give 
you  more  examples.  I  was  once  in  the  compartment  of 
a  railway  train,  in  conversation  with  a  French  Ked 
Cross  nurse.  An  American  officer  entered.  I  saluted 
him,  and  he  saluted  me.  But  he  left  the  compartment. 
A  little  later  the  nurse  was  called  to  the  corridor.  She 
returned  soon  after.  '  I  have  been  warned,'  she  said, 
'  not  to  speak  with  you.  The  other  officer  will  not  share 
the  compartment  so  long  as  you  are  here.'  '' 

I  remained  silent. 

The  men  about  me  continued  to  speak.  A  long  series 
of  anecdotes,  some  more  wounding,  others  less,  followed. 
I  listened,  comprehending. 

"  We  have  drawn  up  a  resolution  based  upon  our  con- 
ception of  human  rights  and  justice,"  said  another  of 
the  men,  "  and  this  we  hope  the  conference  will  consider 
and  perhaps  adopt.  But  even  if  it  does  not  adopt  it, 
the  world  will  hear  of  our  bill  of  rights.  Please  come 
this  afternoon  at  four  o'clock,  so  that  I  may  give  you  a 
copy  of  it." 

I  thanked  him  and  rose  to  leave.  "  Truth,  justice, 
human  rights  " —  these  words  were  whirling  through  my 
brain.  From  times  immemorial  men  had  used  them; 
always  their  aim  was  the  same.  We  had  reached  the 
twentieth  century  now,  and  men  were  still  formulating 
the  old,  old  claims. 

The  major  offered  his  hand.  I  shook  it  in  farewell. 
It  was  black  —  coal  black.  Outside  in  the  corridor  I 
looked  at  my  hand.     Nothing  had  happened  to  it. 

Somehow  official  communiques  all  read  alike  —  con- 


THE  FOURTEEN  POi:t^TS  281 

densed  statements  of  fact,  often  so  laconic  that  one  does 

not  suspect   their   significance.     There  is  the  one  of 

March  10.     It  reads  like  the  routine  meeting  of  a  board 

of  aldermen,  but  it  deserves  to  become  historic.     Here 

it  is: 

Monday. 

The  Supreme  War  Council  met  this  afternoon  at  the  Quai 
d'Orsay  from  three  to  half  past  five  o'clock. 

The  Council  decided  that  the  great  powers  should  designate  rep- 
resentatives of  the  powers  with  special  interests  on  the  economic 
and  financial  commissions. 

The  discussion  then  turned  on  the  report  of  the  military  experts, 
presented  by  Marshal  Foch,  relative  to  the  definitive  military 
status  of  Germany. 

The  terms  of  this  report  were  fixed  and  its  conclusions  adopted. 

The  next  meeting  will  take  place  to-morrow  at  three  o'clock. 

This  communique  marks  the  end  of  the  military 
power  of  Germany.  The  council  has  fixed  the  defini- 
tive military  status  of  Germany.     What  is  it  ? 

This  is  the  second  attempt  in  history  to  limit  the 
war-making  capabilities  of  the  German  people.  The 
first  attempt  was  made  by  Napoleon  with  the  Prussian 
army.  He  failed.  The  members  of  the  Supreme  War 
Council  of  our  day  are  determined  that  they  shall  not 
fail. 

Under  the  agreement  reached  by  the  council  the  Ger- 
man army  will  be  reduced  to  100,000  men ;  the  German 
general  staff  will  be  abolished;  only  from  4000  to  4500 
officers  will  be  permitted  throughout  the  German  nation ; 
conscription  will  be  abolished,  and  Germany's  new  army 
raised  by  volunteer  enlistment  under  a  twelve-year  en- 
listment plan ;  the  great  German  fortifications  along  the 
Rhine  will  be  leveled,  the  output  of  the  ammunition 
factories  will  be  limited  to  serve  the  needs  of  the  army. 


282  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

and,  finally,  Germany  will  not  be  allowed  to  keep  any 
implements  of  war  now  in  her  possession  not  needed  for 
the  army. 

In  limiting  the  German  army  to  100,000  men  the 
council  took  this  figure  arbitrarily.  When  the  subject 
was  first  discussed  at  Spa  the  Americans  proposed  that 
the  future  Germany  army  be  composed  of  400,000  men, 
on  the  basis  of  twenty-five  infantry  and  five  cavalry 
divisions.  The  Americans  were  by  no  means  decided 
that  this  figure  should  stand ;  they  merely  suggested  it  as 
a  basis  for  discussion,  and  it  was  speedily  scaled  down. 
In  the  discussion  the  council  considered  140,000  for  a 
long  time  as  a  proper  figure. 

The  council  hovered  for  some  time  over  the  subject 
of  conscription  or  voluntary  enlistment.  Neighboring 
populations  would  be  affected  by  the  situation  in  Ger- 
many. If  Germany  received  an  army  by  voluntary  en- 
listment, it  was  likely  that  the  socialists  in  France  w^ould 
agitate  for  a  similar  situation  in  France.  A  voluntary 
army  meant  higher  pay  to  the  soldier  and  a  large  outlay 
without  the  return  in  man  power  procured  by  conscrip- 
tion. Great  Britain  favored  a  voluntary  army,  because 
the  British  oppose  a  conscript  army  for  Great  Britain. 
France  will  keep  a  conscript  army  because  it  has  col- 
onies that  need  a  standing  army.  Italy  held  to  the 
French  point  of  view.  In  the  war  of  1870  the  Germans 
had  a  conscript  army,  the  French  a  volunteer  army.  A 
conscript  army  is  regarded  as  better  trained. 

In  declaring  that  enlistments  must  be  for  twelve  years 
the  council  has  attempted  to  foil  any  manoeuver  on  the 
part  of  Germany  to  repeat  the  scheme  used  by  Prussia 


THE  FOURTEEN  POmTS  283 

against  Napoleon  —  of  training  a  small  army  which 
practically  changed  its  personnel  every  six  months,  so 
that  in  a  few  years  Prussia  had  a  redouhtable  military 
force  at  her  disposal.  The  council  proposes  a  method 
of  supervision  over  the  German  army  to  see  that  this 
scheme  is  carried  out.  Such  supervision  will  be  difficult 
after  Germany  has  been  admitted  to  the  League  of 
Nations  as  a  sovereign  state,  but  necessary. 

The  American  point  of  view  is  that  effective  limita- 
tions cannot  be  placed  so  well  on  the  training  of  an 
army  as  on  the  output  of  munitions.  Soldiers  may  be 
trained,  but  unless  equipped,  they  are  useless.  The 
council  will  make  definite  provision  for  the  inspection  of 
German  workshops,  so  that  there  can  be  no  covert  prepa- 
ration for  war;  an  attempt  also  will  be  made  to  make 
impossible  the  preliminary  training  in  athletic  societies 
and  gjTnnasiums  which  has  always  been  a  feature  of 
German  military  instruction.  The  council  will  also 
provide  regulations  against  the  manufacture  of  tanks 
and  asphyxiating  gases ;  the  number  of  aeroplanes  will 
be  limited  and  restricted  to  commercial  and  touring  pur- 
poses. The  navy  may  not  have  over  15,000  sailors,  six 
armored  cruisers,  five  cruisers  of  the  line,  twelve  de- 
stroyers of  800  tons,  and  twenty-six  torpedo  boats  of  300 
tons. 

The  fangs  are  drawn.  A  great  military  power  has 
passed  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 


CHAPTER  XV 

"  Nach  Paris ! "  said  the  Germans,  and  how  they  finally  got 
there.  Also  showing  that  the  German  sometimes  not  only  gets 
what  he  wants,  but  also  what  is  coming  to  him. 

At  last  the  Germans!  Since  the  armistice  on  Xo- 
vember  11,  1919,  the  Western  World  had  waited  for 
the  coming  of  the  Germans,  in  humble  submission,  to 
Versailles.  But  the  days  dragged  on.  Weeks  passed 
without  a  sign  of  them.  The  weeks  lengthened  into 
months,  and  vet  no  Germans.  Repeatedly  we  asked  the 
question  of  Pichon,  of  Tardieu,  of  Balfour,  of  Colonel 
House,  of  General  Bliss,  of  Venizelos,  of  General  Smuts, 
of  the  doughboy  who  ran  the  elevator  in  the  Hotel  de 
Crillon,  and  the  auburn-haired  young  woman  who  sold 
chocolates  and  cigarettes.  "  When,  oh  w^hen,  will  the 
Germans  come  to  Versailles  ? ''  And  even  these  well- 
informed  authorities  could  give  no  answer. 

The  Peace  Conference  had  opened  in  January,  and 
the  world  thought  that  the  Germans  should  have  arrived 
by  February  at  the  very  latest,  should  have  signed  the 
treaty  of  peace  and  departed  home.  The  Germans  had 
even  more  radical  ideas  on  the  same  subject,  for  they 
contended  that  they  should  have  been  called  in  the  very 
first  day  to  sit  with  the  great  powers  at  the  conference 
table  and  help  decide  each  and  every  question.  In  this 
the  Germans  erred  grievously,  as  also  did  numerous 
other  powers,  some  of  whom  had  helped  win  the  war. 

284 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  285 

Crises  came  and  went ;  Allies  became  disgruntled,  and 
talked  of  withdrawing  from  the  conference;  even  the 
great  powers  intimated  that  they  had  grievances  against 
the  Council  of  Four  —  or  Five.  Only  that  astute  body 
actually  knew  how  much  work  had  to  be  accomplished 
before  the  Germans  could  be  called  in,  and  even  its 
•members  could  not  tell  when  the  treaty  would  be  ready 
for  presentation.  They,  of  all  the  delegates,  commis- 
sioners, minor  plenipotentiaries,  ministers,  and  counsel- 
ors of  all  sorts  and  ranks  refused  to  become  disturbed  by 
the  general  clamor.  On  all  sides  critics  shouted  and 
bellowed.  The  military  leaders,  having  from  the  first 
advocated  unconditional  surrender  and  a  clear  road  to 
Berlin, —  and  who  knows  but  that  might  have  been  the 
better  part  ?  —  declared  the  diplomats  were  about  to  lose 
the  victory  that  the  armies  had  won.  Industrial  leaders 
and  bankers,  who  had  eked  out  a  mere  livelihood  in  four 
lean  years,  announced  that  the  conference  was  forcing 
the  world  into  Bolshevism  by  its  procrastination.  Men 
who  were  on  the  scene  every  day,  and  who  could  not  have 
digested  in  years  all  the  problems  disposed  of  by  the 
council  in  a  few  months,  asserted  that  the  peace  commis- 
sioners accomplished  nothing,  and  that  events  remained 
at  a  standstill. 

Meantime  Germany  was  plainly  delighted.  Once  the 
Germans  had  made  up  their  minds  that  they  were  not  to 
be  invited  to  Paris  until  the  treaty  of  peace  was  ready 
to  be  signed,  they  began  to  watch  the  bickerings  of  the 
Allies  closely,  and  to  make  political  capital  out  of  them. 
Their  first  point  of  attack  was  the  vulnerability  of  the 
Fourteen  Points,     Under  the  Fourteen  Points,  as  inter- 


286  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

preted  by  various  groups  in  Paris,  each  claimant  nation 
would  get  everything  it  wanted.  x\nd  so,  when  one  na- 
tion presented  its  claims,  and  these  claims  were  not 
accepted  by  the  council,  the  Germans  in  glee  pointed  to 
the  "  betrayal  "  of  the  Fourteen  Points.  They  reveled 
in  the  crisis  that  brought  President  Wilson  into  the  open 
against  Italy's  claims  to  Fiume ;  they  rejoiced  when  the 
council  refused  to  decree  the  annexation  of  Dutch  Lim- 
burg  to  Belgium;  they  assured  Greece  of  their  sympa- 
thy when  the  Americans  objected  to  the  cession  of 
Thrace ;  they  saw  hope  of  Anglo-French  friction  in  the 
claims  of  Hedjaz  and  Syria;  they  fanned  the  flames  of 
discontent  in  Silesia  and  Teschen,  and  told  the  Ruma- 
nians that  the  great  powers  would  never  grant  them  all 
their  claims  in  Bessarabia,  the  Banat,  and  Transylvania. 
Germany  might  well  hope  to  profit  by  the  discontent 
and  dissatisfaction  among  the  Allies. 

I  remembering  hearing  a  critic  and  well-informed 
student  of  diplomatic  affairs  declare  once : 

My  criticism  against  this  conference  is  its  procrastination.  It 
is  agitating  every  question  under  the  sun.  Consider  the  able  man- 
ner in  which  a  similar  task  was  handled  at  Vienna.  The  congress 
met  for  a  definite  purpose;  it  did  that  work,  completed  its  task, 
and  dissolved.     But  this  conference  — 

That  was  probably  the  first  time  that  the  dancing 
congress  of  1815,  which  opened  in  1814  and  did  not 
complete  some  of  its  labors  until  1821,  was  ever  called 
expeditious  and  direct  in  its  labors.  As  for  the  Peace 
Conference  that  met  in  Paris,  it  was  well  described  by 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  when  be  faced  the  House  of  Commons 
to  answer  the  criticism  of  the  ISTorthcliffe  press : 


THE  FOURTEEISr  POINTS  287 

We  had  to  shorten  our  labors  and  work  crowded  hours,  long  and 
late,  because,  whilst  we  were  trying  to  build,  we  saw  in  many  lands 
the  foundations  of  society  crumbling  into  dust,  and  we  had  to  make 
haste.  I  venture  to  say  that  no  body  of  men  have  worked  harder 
or  in  better  harmony.  I  am  doubtful  whether  any  body  of  men 
with  a  difficult  task  have  worked  under  greater  difficulties  —  stones 
crackling  on  the  roof  and  crashing  through  the  windows,  and  some- 
times wild  men  screaming  through  the  keyholes. 

One  day  a  strange  report  passed  through  Paris  —  the 
Germans  had  arrived !  Across  the  Seine,  in  the  former 
embassy  of  imperial  Germany  they  were  housed,  said 
the  report.  That  great  house,  standing  there  cold  and 
solemn  with  shuttered  windows,  seemed  to  have  entered 
upon  a  long  sleep.  Its  great  gate  was  locked,  and  the 
ivy  creepers  climbed  over  its  hinges.  Meditating  it  was, 
no  doubt,  of  days  of  grandeur,  when  glasses  clinked 
within  and  men  drank  to  "  der  Tag  "  here  in  the  heart 
of  Paris.  What  other  secrets  did  it  hold  ?  There  was 
a  cocker,  it  was  said,  who  had  driven  a  mysterious 
stranger  to  within  a  few  doors  of  the  place,  a  man  who 
w^as  well  muffled  up  in  a  high  coat,  who  had  given  a 
generous  tip,  and  then  sneaked  up  the  Quai  d'Orsay  to 
the  old  embassy.  And  there  was  a  concierge,  and  who 
will  assert  that  a  concierge  does  not  know  a  host  of 
secrets  ? 

Bound  up  with  this  report  was  one  which  gained 
currency  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Hotel  Edouard 
VII,  to  the  effect  that  Dr.  Lammarsch,  the  eminent  Aus- 
trian privy  counselor,  who  was  said  to  have  advised 
Emperor  Charles  of  Austria  to  make  peace,  if  peace 
could  be  made,  long  before  the  great  disaster  came,  had 
been  brought  to  Paris  by  the  French  as  part  of  the 
French  plan  to  build  a  confederation  of  the  Danube. 


288  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Here  was  another  mystery  that  involved  a  hostile  diplo- 
mat in  the  heart  of  Paris.  Italy  would  not  hear  of  a 
Danube  confederation,  which  to  her  meant  the  resusci- 
tation of  the  ancient  empire  of  the  Hapsburgs.  "  We 
are  looking  for  Lammarsch,"  confided  one  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Italian  delegation  to  me,  significantly.  "  If 
you  find  him,  tell  us  at  once." 

In  the  midst  of  the  crisis  over  Eiume,  when  the  situa- 
tion was  so  strained  that  it  looked  as  if  Italy  might 
withdraw  from  the  Peace  Conference  at  any  moment, 
word  went  forth  from  the  council  that  the  Germans  had 
been  officially  notified  to  send  their  plenipotentiaries  to 
Versailles. 

Germany,  still  calling  itself  a  Reich,  a  word  that  had 
been  translated  heretofore  as  '^  empire,"  was  now  nomi- 
nally a  republic  by  the  terms  of  a  provisional  constitu- 
tion adopted  by  the  national  assembly  at  Weimar  on 
February  10.  Ostensibly  a  Socialist  government  was 
in  the  saddle,  with  Friedrich  Ebert  as  president  and 
Philipp  Scheidemann  as  chancellor,  but  actually  it  still 
rested  upon  the  sanction  of  those  who  had  been  the  back- 
bone of  the  military  and  industrial  might  of  Germany. 
Who  would  Germany  send  ?  Erzberger  ?  He  had  been 
a  useful  man  in  the  armistice  negotiations,  but  was 
hardly  suited  as  a  plenipotentiary  now,  even  should  the 
Government  empower  him  to  go ;  for  there  stood  against 
him  his  famous  plan  of  annexation,  promoted  in  1915 
and  made  public  recently  at  Augsburg  by  the  Independ- 
ent Socialist  Landauer.  In  this  Erzberger  outlined  the 
minimum  demands  of  Germany:  sovereignty  over  Bel- 


THE  rOUKTEEIi  POINTS  289 

gium  and  the  channel  ports  of  France  to  Boulogne  and 
the  Norman  isles ;  ownership  of  the  Lorraine  mines  and 
Belfort;  the  annexation  of  the  Belgian  and  French 
Congo,  English  Nigeria,  Dahomey,  and  French  West 
Africa,  not  to  mention  other  details  about  indemnities 
and  payment  of  the  cost  of  the  war.  Bernstorff  ?  It 
was  not  likely  that  the  former  ambassador  to  the  United 
States  would  be  made  welcome,  even  though  he  had  pre- 
pared Germany's  diplomatic  case  for  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence. Germany  had  to  turn  to  men  who  had  not  been 
so  intimately  associated  with  diplomacy  during  the  war. 
For  chairman  of  her  commission  Germany  turned  to 
Brockdorff-Eantzau.  Count  von  Brockdorff-Rantzau 
was  minister  of  foreign  affairs  of  the  new  Germany. 
The  negotiation  of  the  treaty  of  peace  was  properly  his 
work.  Like  Bernstorff,  he  came  from  the  northern 
duchies,  both  his  father  and  his  mother  having  belonged 
to  the  old  nobility  of  Holstein.  His  career  had  been  an 
interesting  one.  Born  in  1869,  he  was  the  son  of  an 
assessor  in  the  Prussian  administration  of  the  duchies, 
who  also  bore  the  title  of  chamberlain  to  the  grand  duke 
of  Oldenburg.  A  member  of  his  mother's  family  was 
grand  mistress  of  the  court  of  the  empress  of  William  11. 
Under  her  patronage  he  joined  the  first  regiment  of  the 
Koyal  Foot  Guards  and  later  entered  the  diplomatic 
service.  When  war  broke  out  he  was  made  minister  to 
Denmark.  His  service  to  the  German  cause  affected 
both  diplomatic  and  economic  fields.  He  won  friends  in 
the  Socialist  ranks  and  was  regarded  as  in  favor  of  a 
peace   of  conciliation.     Both   the   Majority   Socialists 


290  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

under  Scheidemann  and  the  Independents  under  Haase 
considered  him  eligible  for  the  ministry  of  foreign  af- 
fairs after  the  revolution. 

The  powers  at  Paris  judged  his  foreign  policy  and 
his  aims  by  an  address  made  before  the  national  assem- 
bly at  Weimar  on  February  14.  In  substance  he  said 
that  Germany  did  not  account  herself  wholly  responsible 
for  the  war ;  that  she  would  hold  strictly  to  the  principles 
of  President  Wilson.  According  to  the  interpretation 
of  Brockdorff-Kantzau,  Germany  would  not  need  to  pay 
one  cent  of  indemnity  nor  give  up  any  of  her  territory 
to  the  victors.  If  Germany  was  to  rebuild  the  territory 
she  had  devastated,  she  wished  to  do  so  with  free  labor. 
The  war  was  not  won  by  the  adversaries  of  Germany  by 
military  means  alone,  but  largely  because  of  economic 
pressure.  The  peace,  therefore,  must  not  only  be  a  po- 
litical peace,  but  an  economic  peace  as  well.  The  lib- 
erty of  commerce,  he  continued,  presupposed  the  liberty 
of  the  seas.  And  the  liberty  of  the  stas  was  for  Ger- 
many the  essential  point  in  the  Fourteen  Points.  Ger- 
many could  not  entertain  the  idea  of  having  her  colonies 
put  under  an  international  regime  unless  all  colonies 
were  placed  under  a  regime  of  this  kind,  and  Germany 
then  received  the  mandate  over  what  had  been  her  own 
colonies.  The  expulsion  of  Germans  from  Alsace  and 
Lorraine  by  the  French  he  described  as  an  imperialist 
plan  that  should  be  fought  diplomatically  by  Germany. 
Prussian  Poland  he  declared  a  part  of  the  German  Em- 
pire, but  he  favored  adopting  regulations  for  Polish  use 
of  the  Vistula  River,  and  railroads  and  port  concessions 
in  order  to  give  Poland  an  eas^y  access  to  the  Baltic  Se^, 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  291 

lie  declared  that  he  would  not  wish  to  annex  Switzer- 
land, Holland,  or  Scandinavia,  but  that  he  felt  it  proper 
for  Germany  to  annex  its  German  brothers  of  Austria, 
for  more  than  ever  Germany  would  wish  to  have  a  uni- 
fied empire.  Finally  he  declared  himself  in  favor  of 
regulating  labor  and  social  questions  upon  an  interna- 
tional basis,  and  agreed  to  the  collaboration  of  Germany 
in  a  league  of  nations,  "  organized  in  the  spirit  of  Presi- 
dent Wilson." 

Such  were  the  ideas  of  the  leader  of  the  German  dele- 
gation. The  Government  further  named  Dr.  Lands- 
berg,  minister  of  justice ;  Johann  Giesberts,  minister  of 
posts,  (postmaster-general);  Herr  Leinert;  Professor 
Walther  Schiicking;  and  Dr.  Carl  Melchior. 

Of  these  men  Dr.  Melchior  was  widely  known  as  an 
expert  on  finance  who  had  been  in  close  touch  with  men 
of  the  Allied  countries  before  the  war.  The  views  of 
Dr.  Schiicking  on  the  League  of  Nations  had  been  gen- 
erally circulated,  and  deserve  to  be  considered.  He  had 
a  reputation  as  an  expert  on  international  law.  Of  all 
of  the  plenipotentiaries,  however,  Johann  Giesberts  was 
perhaps  most  remarkable. 

Giesberts  rose  from  baker's  apprentice  to  a  position 
in  the  cabinet  of  the  new  Germany.  That  he  should 
step  into  places  vacated  by  men  who  had  never  had  the 
slightest  s\Tnpathy  with  the  commoner  of  the  empire 
was  a  great  outstanding  fact  in  the  story  of  the  German 
revolution.  Giesberts  did  not  play  a  major  role  at  Ver- 
sailles, but  his  presence  there  permits  this  resume  of  his 
rise. 

He  was  a  native  of  Straehlen,  in  the  Ehine  province, 


292  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

having  been  born  February  3,  1865,  the  son  of  a  master 
baker.  In  his  youth  he  attended  merely  the  primary 
school.  From  fifteen  to  eighteen  years  of  age  he  was 
apprenticed  in  a  bakery.  Later  he  worked  in  a  tile  fac- 
tory, and  after  completing  his  service  in  the  army  he 
entered  a  brewery.  He  was  employed  in  the  large  royal 
manufactories  at  Koln-JSTippes  in  1891,  and  was  placed 
in  charge  of  the  mechanical  department.  His  rise  in 
public  life  dates  from  1897,  when  he  first  took  part  in 
an  international  congress  for  the  amelioration  of  work- 
ing conditions  at  Zurich.  Two  years  later  he  became 
editor  of  the  "  West  Deutsche  Arbeiter  Zeitung."  He 
then  became  secretary  of  the  workers  at  Mlinchen-Glad- 
bach.  In  1903  he  was  made  municipal  councilor  of  the 
village,  and  in  1905  was  sent  to  the  Reichstag  by  the 
electors  of  Essen.  He  became  one  of  the  speakers  of 
the  Catholic  Center  party  on  social  questions. 

Giesberts  is  president  of  the  Christian  Social  Union 
of  Metallurgists,  and  as  such  in  close  touch  with  groups 
led  by  Thyssen  and  Erzberger.  During  the  war  he  la- 
bored successfully  to  promote  a  better  understanding 
between  the  Catholic  s;>Tidicates  and  the  Socialist  syndi- 
cates headed  by  Legien.  His  appointment  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  commission  was  a  bold  stroke  to  win  the  ap- 
probation of  the  workers  of  Germany. 

Although  Giesberts  was  not  a  leader  in  the  delegation, 
his  views  may  be  considered  fairly  typical.  He  de- 
clared that  the  Entente  had  no  need  to  fear  militarism 
and  kaiserism  in  the  future.  Silesia  he  considered  in- 
dispensable to  German  industry.  The  loss  of  the  Saar 
basin  he  declared  a  vital  blow  at  Germany,  one  that 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  293 

would  result  in  the  loss  by  immigration  and  annexation 
of  20,000,000  workers  directly  and  indirectly  dependent 
upon  the  products  of  the  mines.  He  asserted  that  a 
strong  Belgium  and  Alsace-Lorraine  in  the  hands  of  the 
French  precluded  any  ideas  of  conquest  on  the  part  of 
Germany.  He  favored  either  an  entente  between 
France  and  Germany  as  a  means  of  avoiding  economic 
rivalry  and  war,  or  an  entente  between  England  and 
the  United  States  on  the  one  hand  and  Germany  on  the 
other.  He  said  that  if  the  terms  reported  fixed  by  the 
Peace  Conference  were  signed  by  Germany,  the  nation 
would  cut  its  own  throat,  and  that  famine  and  unem- 
ployment would  result. 

The  views  of  Professor  Walther  Schiicking  on  the 
League  of  Nations  are  important  not  because  they  had 
any  influence  on  the  preparation  of  the  covenant  of  the 
league,  but  because  they  may  prove  of  value  in  the  fu- 
ture after  Germany  enters  the  league  in  good  standing. 
He  is  a  native  of  Mlinster  in  Westphalia,  and  was  born 
in  1875.  He  is  known  as  an  authority  on  international 
law,  and  has  written  a  large  number  of  books,  among 
them  works  on  the  use  of  mines  in  war,  the  problem  of 
the  nationalities,  the  work  of  the  Hague  courts,  the 
League  of  Nations,  and  the  Hague  Conference  of  1912. 
Before  the  war  he  was  an  associate  of  the  Institute  of 
International  Law  and  vice-president  of  the  League  for 
International  Understanding.  His  views  on  the  league 
were  given  publicity  in  the  '^  Frankfurter  Zeitung  "  on 
February  28,  1919,  when  he  commented  at  length  on  the 
covenant  read  by  President  Wilson.  He  asserted  that 
the  project  as  outlined  was  greatly  inferior  to  the  Ger- 


294  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

man  plan.  In  French  circles  it  was  pointed  out  that  his 
project,  developed  by  the  society  for  the  rights  of  man, 
would  give  to  the  vanquished  most  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  won  by  the  victor.  It  outlined  an  approvi- 
sionnement  of  raw  materials  to  meet  German  industrial 
needs ;  the  complete  freedom  of  all  maritime  communi- 
cations and  straits ;  the  open  door  and  equal  commercial 
rights  for  all  nations  in  all  foreign  countries,  including 
those  of  Germany's  enemies;  the  establishment  of  Ger- 
man consuls,  representing  in  all  colonial  territories  an 
international  bureau  of  administration  of  colonies,  and 
charged  with  watching  over  German  commercial  inter- 
ests there ;  finally  the  installation  of  international  com- 
missions, including  German  commissioners  in  their 
memberships,  in  all  ports  of  mixed  population.  Dr. 
Schlicking  also  proposed  to  reduce  armaments  to  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  of  their  force  in  1909.  French  critics 
pointed  out  that  this  would  still  give  the  German  Army 
a  preponderance,  for  at  that  time  it  was  extraordinarily 
strong,  whereas  the  French  Army  was  considerably 
smaller,  owing  to  the  two  years'  service  law,  while  the 
British  Army  would  have  reached  only  about  the  size  of 
the  First  Expeditionary  Force,  and  the  American  Army 
was  reduced  to  its  small  pre-war  size  and  state  militia. 
On  the  subject  of  the  League  of  Nations  Dr.  Schlick- 
ing declared : 

So  long  as  we  remain  outside  the  League  of  Nations,  it  will 
appear  as  an  imposing  treaty  of  alliance  signed  by  our  enemies 
and  directed  against  us. 

The  pact  of  the  League  of  Nations  seeks  to  hide  with  a  vine- 
leaf  the  rape  of  the  German  colonies,  at  the  same  time  favoring 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  295 

the   English   and    French   negotiations   on  the   territories   of   the 
Ottoman  Empire. 

Professor  Schiicking  was  also  of  the  opinion  that 
"  the  internationalization  of  the  high  seas,  advocated 
by  President  Wilson,  has  fallen  completely  under  the 
table." 

The  German  delegation  to  Versailles  comprised  also 
a  great  group  of  men  known  as  commissioners^  this  term 
evidently  being  subordinated  to  that  of  delegates,  as  the 
six  principal  representatives  with  plenipotentiary  pow- 
ers were  known.  The  commissioners  were  experts  in 
various  fields,  such  as  finance,  colonies,  labor,  railways, 
justice,  commerce  and  industry,  army  and  marine  af- 
fairs. In  addition  to  these  came  a  number  of  technical 
advisers  and  representatives  of  the  principal  German 
newspapers,  several  of  whom  had  formerly  resided  in 
the  Entente  countries. 

A  number  of  German  functionaries  arrived  the  last 
week  in  April.  They  included  Baron  von  Lersner, 
counselor  of  the  legation;  Herr  Griebler,  chief  of  the 
telegraphic  service,  and  Herr  Walther,  inspector  of 
mails,  who  was  also  associated  with  telephone  and  tele- 
graphic arrangements.  Their  work  was  to  prepare 
quarters  in  the  Hotel  des  Reservoirs  for  the  delegation, 
and  to  make  arrangements  for  direct  telephone  and  tele- 
graphic connection  with  Frankfort,  Spa  and  Cologne. 
Upon  learning  that  there  would  be  virtually  two  hun- 
dred persons  in  the  German  entourage,  the  French  Gov- 
ernment reserved  three  hotels  in  Versailles  for  their 
convenience,  the  Hotel  des  Reservoirs,  the  Vatel,  and 


296  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

the  Suisse,  and  decided  that  the  park  of  the  Trianon 
should  be  set  aside  for  the  use  of  the  German  delegates, 
and  closed  to  the  public. 

It  was  on  the  night  of  April  29  that  the  main  body 
of  the  German  delegation  arrived.  Paris  at  last,  with- 
out fanfares,  without  salutes,  without  the  beat  of  drums ! 
Not  as  conquering  hosts,  but  as  submissive  representa- 
tives of  a  defeated  government,  come  at  the  bidding  of 
their  conquerors.  The  special  train  entered  the  little 
station  at  Vaucresson  at  8  :35  o'clock.  Colonel  Henry, 
head  of  the  Erench  mission  delegated  to  take  charge  of 
the  arrangements,  was  present  with  members  of  the 
mission ;  a  number  of  French  local  officials  were  also 
there.  Baron  von  Lersner  first  entered  the  train  and 
met  Count  von  Brockdorff-Rantzau,  and  then  introduced 
him  to  the  French  officials.  The  men  saluted  silently. 
M.  Chaleil  then  said : 

"  Excellency,  as  prefect  of  the  department  of  the 
Seine  et  Oise  in  the  name  of  the  Government  of  the 
Eepublic  I  have  the  mission  of  receiving  here  the  dele- 
gation of  the  German  plenipotentiaries,  of  which  you  are 
the  chief.  I  have  the  honor  of  saluting  you.  Colonel 
Henry,  here  present,  is  the  chief  of  the  French  mission, 
which  will  be  the  organ  of  liaison  between  the  German 
plenipotentiaries  and  the  Government  of  the  Republic 
and  the  Allied  governments." 

Count  von  Brockdorff-Rantzau  saluted,  and  replied 
in  a  low  voice: 

"  I  thank  you,  M.  le  prefet,  personally  and  in  the 
name  of  my  Government,  and  I  pray  you  to  transmit  my 
thanks  to  the  Government  of  the  Republic." 


THE  FOUETEEK  POINTS  297 

The  flash-lights  of  the  photographers  illumined  the 
historic  scene.  The  delegation  entered  automobiles,  and 
was  driven  to  Versailles.  Several  camions  were  needed 
to  transport  a  mass  of  documents  and  papers  of  all 
kinds.  It  was  said  that  the  delegates  carried  a  great 
amount  of  documentary  evidence  intended  to  cast  light 
upon  the  preparations  for  war,  the  situation  in  July, 
1914,  the  German  information  on  the  mobilization  of 
the  Russian  and  Belgian  armies,  and  other  data  meant 
to  help  prove  that  Germany  was  not  the  sole  aggressor. 
It  was  recalled  at  the  same  time  that  there  was  not  a  man 
in  the  German  delegation  who  had  openly  stated  his  be- 
lief that  Germany  had  begun  the  war  or  who  had  dis- 
avowed Germany's  aims  and  practices.  There  were 
new  names  and  new  faces,  but  the  background  of  Ger- 
man policy  was  the  same  as  it  had  been  during  the  war. 

The  coming  of  the  Germans  created  scarcely  a  ripple 
in  the  quiet  daily  life  of  Versailles.  It  is  true  that  the 
hotels  assumed  a  new  air  of  bustling  activity,  and  that 
the  German  clerks  and  secretaries  began  moving  be- 
tween the  three  set  aside  for  their  use  with  the  preoccu- 
pation of  a  family  of  ants.  A  few  more  automobiles 
rolled  down  the  Avenue  de  Paris,  a  few  more  soldiers 
crossed  the  Place  d'Armes,  but  on  the  whole  Versailles 
scarcely  moved  an  eyelid.  It  had  a  regal  tradition  and 
was  stirred  by  great,  not  little,  events. 

If  the  Germans  had  hoped  to  receive  the  treaty  on  the 
day  after  their  arrival  they  were  doomed  to  disappoint- 
ment. The  Council  of  Four  was  not  ready  for  them, 
and  consequently  it  went  quietly  ahead,  considering  the 
causes  laid  before  it,  adjudicating  disputes  and  award- 


298  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

ing  claims.  The  Germans  fumed  and  fussed,  and  their 
journalists  wrote  long  articles  for  the  German  news- 
papers, dilating  upon  the  disagreements  among  the 
Council  of  r  our  and  the  fact  that  the  Peace  Conference 
might  jet  break  up  and  deliver  the  Germans  from  bond- 
age. It  was  a  fond  hope,  but  only  that.  The  council, 
which  had  been  unmoved  by  the  storm  of  protest  from 
its  own  people,  was  not  likely  to  be  hurried  by  the 
Germans. 

On  May  2  the  first  formal  meeting  between  the  Ger- 
man delegates  and  an  official  body  of  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence took  place  at  the  Palace  of  the  Trianon,  when  the 
Germans  presented  their  credentials  to  the  committee 
of  the  conference,  headed  by  M.  Jules  Cambon  and  in- 
cluding Mr.  Henry  White,  Lord  Hardinge,  and  M. 
Matsui.  The  Italian  delegation  was  not  represented, 
ostensibly  as  part  of  its  protest  against  the  methods  of 
President  Wilson.  Colonel  Henry  introduced  Count 
von  Brockdorff-Rantzau  to  M.  William  Martin,  director 
of  the  protocol,  who  in  turn  presented  the  German  com- 
mittee on  credentials,  including  Herr  Landsberg,  minis- 
ter of  justice;  Herr  Simons,  director  of  the  section  on 
justice  for  the  ministry  of  foreign  affairs;  and  Herr 
Ganss,  counselor  of  the  legation  and  associated  as  advo- 
cate with  the  ministry  of  foreign  affairs.  In  view  of 
the  questionable  status  of  the  de  facto  German  Govern- 
ment, considerable  curiosity  was  shown  in  Allied  circles 
as  to  how  the  German  credentials  would  be  certified. 
It  was  extremely  necessary  for  the  Peace  Conference  to 
know  that  it  was  dealing  with  a  body  that  had  veritable 
powers,   and  not  with  one  of  shifting  responsibility. 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  299 

When  the  credentials  were  presented,  it  was  found  that 
thej  were  typewritten  on  parchment  and  signed  by 
Ebert  as  president  of  the  Reich,  and  Scheidemann  as 
chancellor. 

The  German  comment  on  the  credentials  of  the  Allied 
and  Associated  powers,  which  were  handed  in  exchange, 
is  interesting  in  view  of  the  questions  raised.  The 
Germans  found  that  those  of  Italy,  Costa  Eica,  and 
Montenegro  were  not  presented.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  credentials  of  the  Serbs  were  given  as  those  of  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes,  which 
had  not  been  seated  as  such  by  the  Peace  Conference. 
The  Germans  also  received  the  credentials  of  Bolivia 
and  Peru,  "  with  whom,"  said  the  Germans,  "  we  were 
not  at  war,"  and  those  of  Hedjaz,  which  during  the  war 
was  a  part  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  whose  defection 
the  Germans  and  the  Turks  had  not  recognized. 

On  May  7,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  Peace 
Conference  formally  handed  to  the  German  plenipoten- 
tiaries the  treaty  of  peace,  an  amazing  document  of  440 
separate  articles,  comprising  approximately  80,000 
words,  covering  every  phase  of  the  readjustment  of  the 
relations,  political,  economic,  financial,  military,  be- 
tween Germany  and  her  neighbors  in  Europe,  the  most 
exhaustive  and  remarkable  document  of  its  kind  that  the 
world  has  ever  seen.  May  7  was  the  anniversary  of 
the  sinking  of  the  LusUania  by  a  German  submarine. 

The  ceremony  took  place  in  the  ancient  dining-room 
of  the  Palace  of  the  Trianon,  about  a  great  table  placed 
in  the  center  of  the  room.  M.  Clemenceau  sat  at  the 
head  of  the  table,  with  President  Wilson  at  his  right  and 


300  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Mr.  Llojd  George  at  his  left.  The  other  powers  were 
ranged  at  each  hand.  Facing  the  president,  sat  the  six 
German  delegates,  pale,  determined,  austere.  Italy's 
representatives,  Signor  Orlando  and  Baron  Sonnino, 
came  back  at  the  last  moment  and  shook  hands  cordially 
with  President  Wilson.  In  all  sixty-four  delegates 
were  present  at  the  formal  session. 

It  was  3  :05  o'clock  when  M.  Bonhomme,  sergeant  at 
arms  of  the  ministry  of  foreign  affairs,  announced  to  the 
assembly : 

^'  The  German  plenipotentiaries !  " 

The  German  delegation  of  twelve  entered.  Count  von 
Brockdorff-Rantzau  at  its  head.  The  Allied  and  Asso- 
ciated delegates  rose  formally.  The  Germans  bowed. 
M.  William  Martin  led  them  to  their  places.  M.  Clem- 
enceau  then  announced : 

^'  The  session  is  opened." 

The  little  president  of  the  council  seemed  in  the  best 
of  humor.  His  eyes  twinkled.  He  spoke  in  an  ani- 
mated manner  with  President  Wilson  and  Mr.  Lloyd 
George.  He  wore  his  regular  attire,  a  black  suit,  a  little 
black  tie,  and  gray  silk  gloves.  It  was  distinctly  his 
day.  He  might  have  been  thinking  of  1871,  when  he, 
too,  was  an  actor,  although  in  a  minor  part  in  the  drama 
at  Bordeaux,  in  events  so  different  from  those  taking 
place  to-day.  He  plunged  immediately  into  his  speech. 
It  lacked  neither  force,  nor  emphasis,  nor  directness. 
He  said : 

It  is  neither  the  time  nor  the  place  for  superfluous  words.  You 
have  before  you  the  accredited  plenipotentiaries  of  all  the  small 
and  great  powers,  united  to  fight  together  in  the  war  that  was  so 


THE  FOUKTEE:Nr  POINTS  301 

cruelly  imposed  upon  them.  The  time  has  come  when  we  must 
settle  our  accounts.  You  have  asked  for  peace.  We  are  ready  to 
give  you  peace.  We  shall  present  to  you  now  a  book  which  con- 
tains our  conditions. 

M.  Clemenceau  declared  briefly  that  the  Germans 
might  ofi'er  their  observations  on  the  treaty,  and  that  no 
oral  discussion  would  take  place,  but  all  would  be  in 
writing.  The  Germans  were  to  have  fifteen  days  in 
which  to  present  in  English  and  French  their  written 
observations.  The  Peace  Conference  would  reply  as 
soon  as  they  were  presented.  M.  Clemenceau  had  lived 
too  long  to  delude  himself  with  fine  phrases.  He  spoke 
his  mind  bluntly.  He  had  always  done  so.  He  had 
made  opponents  by  speaking  his  mind,  but  one  thing 
was  certain,  his  views  were  clear  cut  and  known  to 
friend  and  foe. 

The  reply  of  Count  von  Brockdorff-Eantzau  produced 
a  most  unfavorable  impression  on  the  Allied  and  Asso- 
ciated plenipotentiaries.  Even  though  the  conference 
did  not  look  for  abject  apologies,  it  had  expected  an 
attitude  of  deference  to  its  wishes.  The  German  leader, 
however,  spoke  in  what  seemed  a  harsh  and  defiant  tone. 
He  began  speaking  without  rising,  a  fact  that  caused 
the  Allies  to  look  at  one  another  in  astonishment,  for  M. 
Clemenceau  had  accorded  that  courtesy  to  his  enemies. 
Why  he  did  not  rise  Count  von  Brockdorff-Rantzau  has 
never  explained.  Even  his  enemies  attempted  to  find 
excuses  for  him;  they  were  willing  to  credit  it  to  an 
indisposition,  but  hardly  to  rudeness.  President  Wil- 
son, so  the  story  goes,  remarked  on  this  fact  to  M. 
Clemenceau, 


302  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

"  We  are  accustomed  to  it,"  replied  the  French 
leader.  ''  This  is  the  sort  of  treatment  we  have  had 
to  put  up  with  in  Europe  for  years." 

Count  von  Brockdorti'-Kantzau  spoke  in  German,  and 
as  he  proceeded  two  German  secretaries  translated  his 
remarks  phrase  by  phrase  into  French  and  English. 
The  course  of  his  remarks  may  be  followed  by  these  ex- 
tracts from  his  address : 

We  are  under  no  illusion  as  to  the  extent  of  our  defeat  and  the 
degree  of  our  want  of  power.  We  know  that  the  power  of  Ger- 
man arms  is  broken.  We  know  the  power  of  the  hatred  which  we 
encounter  here,  and  we  have  heard  the  passionate  demand  that  the 
victors  shall  make  us  pay  as  the  vanquished,  and  shall  punish  those 
who  are  worthy  of  being  punished. 

It  is  demanded  of  us  that  we  shall  confess  ourselves  to  be  the 
only  ones  guilty  of  the  war.  Such  a  confession  in  my  mouth  will 
be  a  lie.  We  are  far  from  declining  any  responsibility  for  this 
great  world  war  having  come  to  pass,  and  for  its  having  been 
made  in  the  way  in  which  it  was  made.  The  attitude  of  the  former 
German  Government  at  the  Hague  peace  conference,  its  actions 
and  omissions  in  the  tragic  twelve  days  of  July,  certainly  contrib- 
uted to  the  disaster,  but  we  energetically  deny  that  Germany  and 
its  people,  who  were  convinced  that  they  were  making  a  war  of 
defense,  were  alone  guilty.  .  .  . 

We  repeat  the  declaration  made  in  the  German  Reichstag  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war;  that  is  to  say,  "A  wrong  has  been  done  to 
Belgium,  and  we  are  willing  to  repair  it." 

But  in  the  manner  of  making  war  also  Germany  is  not  the  only 
guilty  one;  every  nation  knows  of  the  deeds  of  peoples  which  the 
best  nationals  only  remember  with  regret.  ...  I  ask  you  when 
reparation  is  demanded  not  to  forget  the  armistice.  It  took  you 
six  weeks  till  we  got  it  at  last,  and  six  months  till  we  came  to 
know  your  conditions  of  peace.  Crimes  in  war  may  be  excusable, 
but  they  are  committed  in  the  struggle  for  victory.  .  .  .  The  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  non-combatants  who  have  perished  since 
November  11  by  reason  of  the  blockade  were  killed  with  cold 
deliberation  after  our  adversaries  had  conquered  and  victory  had 
been  assured  to  them.  Think  of  that  when  you  speak  of  guilt  and 
of  punishment.  .  .  . 

The  measure  of  guilt  of  all  those  who  have  taken  part  can  only 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  303 

be  stated  by  impartial  inquest  before  a  neutral  commission  before 
which  all  the  principal  persons  of  the  tragedy  are  allowed  to 
speak  and  to  which  all  the  archives  are  open.  We  have  demanded 
such  an  inquest  and  we  repeat  this  demand.  .  .  . 

We  are  not  without  protection.  .  .  .  The  principles  of  President 
Wilson  have  thus  become  binding  for  both  parties  to  the  war,  for 
you  as  well  as  for  us,  and  also  for  our  former  allies. 

Count  von  Brockdorff-Rantzau  said  that  Germany  was 
ready  to  repair  the  devastated  areas  in  Belgium  and 
France,  but  that  it  would  be  disastrous  if  this  were  to 
be  done  by  the  labor  of  prisoners  of  war.  He  warned 
against  a  crisis  which  might  bring  with  it  the  inability 
of  the  Germans  to  repair  the  damages,  and  result  in  the 
disorder  of  the  whole  European  economical  system. 
"  The  conquerors  as  well  as  the  vanquished  people  must 
guard  against  this  menacing  danger,  with  its  incalcu- 
lable consequences.  There  is  only  one  means  of  ban- 
ishing it  —  unlimited  confession  of  the  economical  and 
social  solidarity  of  all  peoples  in  a  free  and  rising 
League  of  Nations." 

He  expressed  the  intention  of  the  Germans  to  examine 
the  document  given  them  with  good  will,  in  the  hope 
that  it  might  finally  be  subscribed  to  by  all. 

The  remarks  of  the  count,  especially  those  regarding 
Allied  responsibility  for  lives  lost  in  Germany  by  the 
delay  in  negotiations  caused  an  unfavorable  reaction,  as 
the  Allies  rejected  this  charge.  M.  Clemenceau  rose 
and  said : 

"  Has  any  one  any  more  observations  to  offer  ?  Does 
no  one  wish  to  speak?  If  not  the  meeting  is  closed." 
It  was  4 :05  p.  m. 

The  Germans  withdrew,  and  soon  thereafter  the  con- 
ference adjourned.     A  few  of  the  delegates  delayed 


304  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

their  departure ;  for  the  bulky  volume  which  had  given 
the  Germans  the  surprise  of  their  lives  was  no  less  a 
surprise  to  many  of  the  members  of  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence, men  representing  friendly  powers  who  might  have 
been  considered  in  close  touch  with  the  work  of  the 
council,  and  yet  who  stood  on  the  outside,  almost  as  far 
on  the  outside  as  the  Germans. 

And  so  the  treaty  was  given  to  the  Germans,  and  by 
them  made  public,  as  it  deserved  to  be,  but  as  for  the 
Allied  and  Associated  governments,  they  still  main- 
tained an  air  of  secrecy  about  certain  of  its  provisions. 
A  summary  was  presented  to  the  press,  and  although  it 
had  been  drawn  up  with  care,  it  was  hardly  more  than 
a  superficial  resume  of  a  work  that  dealt  with  infinitesi- 
mal details.  That  the  treaty  was  not  formally  given  to 
the  world  at  the  time  it  was  presented  to  the  Germans 
is  inexplicable  and  inexcusable;  it  reached  the  public 
by  devious  channels,  through  the  publications  of  the 
Germans,  through  violations  of  confidence,  through 
garbled  accounts  given  by  commissioners  and  delegates. 
Even  the  members  of  the  French  Chamber  of  Deputies 
complained  that  they  had  to  buy  the  German  newspapers 
to  get  a  detailed  account  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  while  the 
United  States  Senate  found  a  new  grievance  in  the  fact 
that  it  had  been  again  ignored.  Technically,  the  Sen- 
ate could  not  well  receive  the  treaty  until  it  had  been 
signed ;  but  publication  of  the  document  would  have  ob- 
viated this  new  criticism  and  avoided  jeopardizing  its 
ratification,  a  matter  that  was  as  vital  to  its  success  as 
its   signature.     Here   again   the   American   President^ 


THE  FOUETEE:^^  points  305 

technically  within  his  rights,  failed  to  grasp  the  needs 
of  the  situation. 

It  was  a  quiet  and  uncommunicative  group  of  men 
that  returned  that  night  to  the  Hotel  des  Reservoirs. 
In  the  dining-room  scarce  a  word  was  spoken  above  a 
whisper.  At  the  central  table,  where  Count  von  Brock- 
dorff-Eantzau  presided  in  the  midst  of  twelve  members 
of  the  delegation,  men  ate  their  meal  in  silence.  When 
he  rose,  the  work  of  translation  was  immediately  begun. 
Throughout  the  night  the  secretaries  labored  and  by 
three  a.  m.  a  German  copy  was  in  his  hands.  Not  until 
dawn  did  the  head  of  the  German  delegation  cease  his 
labors. 

To  the  Allied  and  Associated  powers  it  was  evident 
that  Germany  had  sent  to  Versailles  no  chastened  and 
humbled  representatives.  Leaders  who  had  hoped  for 
a  new  attitude  as  a  result  of  the  great  debacle,  shook 
their  heads. 

"  It  is  the  same  Germany,"  they  said  sadly. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

A  pilgrimage  to  the  Hall  of  Mirrors  at  Versailles,  and  how  it 
recalls  the  founding  of  an  empire  forty-eight  years  ago. 

Tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  they  come,  like  an  army  on 
parade,  up  the  stone-paved  forecourt  of  the  Palace  of 
Versailles,  where  once  the  Swiss  Guard  stood  at  atten- 
tion ;  up  the  narrow  staircase  that  leads  to  the  chapel  of 
the  Bourbon  kings,  their  heavy  hobnailed  shoes  ringing 
through  the  corridors.  Into  the  great  Hall  of  Hercules 
they  march,  their  heels  grinding  into  the  sawdust  that 
now  lies  thick  on  floors  once  lightly  touched  by  the 
dainty,  slippered  feet  of  a  royalty  that  now  lives  merely 
in  romance.  Tan  shoes;  clay-colored  puttees;  khaki 
uniforms;  bronzed,  oval  faces;  the  overseas  cap  —  these 
are  the  doughboys  of  the  American  Army  invading  the 
palace  of  Versailles. 

The  leader  is  uniformed  much  as  they  are,  but  there 
are  red  letters  and  a  triangle  on  his  cap  that  indicate  his 
affiliation  with  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  He  is  not  a  profes- 
sional guide,  merely  an  amateur;  vice-president  of  a 
bank,  perhaps,  in  his  home  town  in  York  State,  or  owner 
of  a  cattle-ranch  in  sunny  Texas,  and  has  come  across  for 
the  love  of  the  work.  Not  a  professional,  but  he  has 
read  history  with  the  mind  of  a  student  and  the  interest 
of  a  lover  of  old  things.  He  stands  in  the  middle  of  this 
old  room,  with  head  held  high,  telling  the  story  of  other 


THE  rOUETEEN  POINTS  307 

days  clearly  and  simply  as  if  he  were  addressing  a  group 
of  children.  And  so  he  is,  for  many  of  these  men  who 
crowd  about  him  are  children  from  the  New  World, 
hearing  for  the  first  time  the  legends  of  the  Old,  listen- 
ing to  these  stories  of  kings  and  queens  and  princesses 
much  as  once  they  listened  to  the  tales  of  knights-errant 
and  gay  cavaliers. 

"  The  Hall  of  Hercules,''  declaims  the  guide.  "  Ob- 
serve the  painting  on  the  ceiling  by  Lemoyne.  Here 
once  was  located  the  altar  of  the  palace,  before  the  great 
chapel  was  built  by  Mansart.  Here  preached  Bourda- 
loue  and  Massillon.  Here  were  married  the  Duke  of 
Maine,  son  of  King  Louis  XIV  and  Mme.  De  Monte- 
span  ;  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  and  the  Duke  of  Chartres. 
We  will  pass  to  the  grand  apartments,  where  the  court 
met  nightly;  we  will  see  the  Salon  of  Diana,  where 
Louis  le  Grand  played  at  billiards;  the  Salon  of  Mars, 
once  a  concert-room;  the  Salon  of  Mercury,  where,  so 
Mme.  de  Sevigne  tells  us,  the  queen  lost  heavily  at  cards, 
and  Monsieur,  the  king's  brother,  pledged  his  jewels  to 
pay  his  gambling  debts.  Here,  too,  for  eight  days  stood 
the  coffin  of  Louis  XIV;  then  the  Salon  of  Apollo;  and 
the  Salon  of  War  — " 

Tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  onward  through  the  rooms 
where  once  lived  and  moved  the  royalty  and  the  nobility 
of  France  —  rooms  that  still  contain  the  costly  tapes- 
tries, the  quaint  mural  decorations,  the  gorgeous  ceil- 
ings, and  the  sunlike  emblems  of  the  roi  soleil.  Let  us 
follow  this  small  army  from  the  West  —  from  Ohio  and 
Oklahoma  and  the  hill-sides  of  the  Sierras  —  through 
these  ancient  rooms. 


308  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

'^  The  Salon  of  Apollo  was  once  the  throne-room," 
says  the  guide.  "  Here  was  placed  the  great  throne  of 
pure  silver  on  which  sat  Louis  XIV  when  he  wished  to 
impress  his  visitors  from  foreign  lands.  Here  Louis 
received  the  Doge  of  Genoa,  who,  when  asked  what  he 
considered  most  remarkable  at  Versailles,  replied,  ^  That 
I  should  be  here !  '  And  then  the  Hall  of  War,  where 
Louis  received  the  ambassadors  from  other  lands.  Ob- 
serve the  magnificent  ceiling  by  Lebrun,  with  the  paint- 
ing that  depicts  Germany,  Holland,  and  Spain  taking 
alarm  at  the  mighty  conquests  of  the  great  French  mon- 
arch. And  from  the  Hall  of  War  we  pass  into  that 
most  magnificent  of  all  rooms  —  the  galerie  des 
glaces  —  the  Hall  of  Mirrors  !  " 

The  Hall  of  Mirrors  at  last!  Across  the  garden 
front  of  the  palace  it  stretches,  a  continuation  at  one 
end  of  the  Hall  of  War,  at  the  other  of  the  Hall  of 
Peace.  The  incomparable  salon,  so  truly  a  part  of  the 
history  of  France,  where  have  been  enacted  scenes  that 
recall  her  glory  and  her  humiliation !  And  here  is  to  be 
staged  that  culminating  act  of  the  Great  War  —  the 
signing  of  the  treaty  of  peace. 

Let  us  enter  this  formal  room.  At  the  first  glance  it 
appears  narrow.  The  guide  tells  us  that  it  was  built  by 
Mansart  in  1678,  and  that  it  is  240  feet  long,  35  feet 
wide,  and  42  feet  high.  These  are  mere  details  that  go 
unnoticed.  What  strikes  the  eye  is  the  long  line  of 
mirrors  that  fills  every  inch  of  the  seventeen  great  arches 
rising  on  the  wall  opposite  the  seventeen  great  windows 
that  look  out  over  one  of  the  most  magnificent  gardens 
of  the  world.     There  is  a  frieze  of  gold  and  white,  odd 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  309 

allegorical  figures  of  children  and  trophies  of  war,  by 
Coysevox,  and  above,  on  the  ceiling,  the  allegorical 
paintings  of  Lebrun,  eulogizing  the  career  of  Louis  le 
Grand.  It  was  a  great  tradition  that  began  here,  too 
great  for  the  successors  of  Louis  to  carry. 

These  mirrors  have  reflected  the  old  monarch  in  all 
his  plumage.  They  have  helped  diffuse  the  light  from 
the  tall  silver  candelabra  with  the  eight  branches, 
chiseled  to  depict  the  labors  of  Hercules,  that  illumi- 
nated this  hall.  They  have  brought  to  Marie  Antoi- 
nette the  joy  of  beholding  herself  the  most  beautiful 
woman  of  a  beautiful  retinue.  Lords  of  high  estate, 
princes,  generals,  ambassadors,  and  plebeians  have 
passed  before  them.  Here  the  nobility  of  France  paid 
honor  to  the  Prince  of  Conde.  Here  smiled  Mme.  de 
Maintenon,  secretly  married  to  Louis  XIV,  of  whom  her 
most  bitter  enemy  said  that  she  never  appeared  old,  not 
even  at  seventy.  Here  passed  Mme.  de  Pompadour, 
"  la  Eeinette,"  beloved  of  Louis  XV ;  and  Mme.  du 
Barry,  on  the  eve  of  her  presentation.  Racine  was 
here,  writing  for  the  royal  theater,  where  his  ''  Athalie  " 
was  presented  by  the  demoiselles  of  Saint-Cyr ;  and  Vol- 
taire, favored  by  Mme.  de  Pompadour,  and  writing  for 
her  "  La  princesse  de  Navarre/'  put  to  music  by  Ra- 
meau.  And  before  these  mirrors,  too,  passed  Jean 
Bart,  intrepid  hero  of  the  sea;  the  powerful  Marshal 
Turenne ;  and  an  old  man  of  dry  wit,  plain  middle-class 
attire,  flowing  gray  locks,  and  firm,  compressed  lips  — 
Benjamin  Franklin. 

The  costly  furniture  with  which  Louis  le  Grand  once 
adorned  this  hall  has  vanished.     Gone  are  the  silver 


310  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

chairs  and  tables,  the  silver  taborets,  the  silver  candela- 
bra, the  silver  jardinieres  that  held  orange-trees  laden 
with  their  golden  fruit.  Long  since  melted  do\vn  are 
they,  like  the  silver  throne,  to  pay  the  toll  of  the  costly 
wars  waged  by  the  great  monarch  in  his  failing  years. 
Gone,  too,  are  the  heavy  damask  hangings  of  blue  and 
gold  that,  we  are  told,  decorated  the  seventeen  great  win- 
dows, and  the  alabaster  vases  encrusted  with  gold ;  and 
in  place  of  the  costly  settees  we  now  see  low  upholstered 
benches  that  serve  to  rest  the  weary  limbs  of  wide-eyed 
sightseers. 

And  here,  in  this  Hall  of  Mirrors,  on  January  18, 
1871,  was  proclaimed  the  German  Empire,  which, 
erected  on  force  and  aggression,  now  lies  humbled  in 
the  dust. 

January  18,  1871 — it  was  a  memorable  day.  It 
deserves  to  be  recalled  as  we  stand  here  in  this  hall,  for 
we  are  living  the  sequel  to  the  story  that  began  here.  It 
was  President  Poincare,  you  will  remember,  who  first 
spoke  of  that  date  at  this  Peace  Conference,  on  January 
18,  1919,  in  the  hall  of  the  clock  at  the  ministry  of 
foreign  affairs,  when  he  said:  "  This  very  day,  forty- 
eight  years  ago,  on  the  eighteenth  of  January,  1871,  the 
German  Empire  was  proclaimed  by  an  army  of  invasion, 
in  the  Chateau  at  Versailles.  It  was  consecrated  by  the 
theft  of  two  Erench  provinces.  It  was  thus  vitiated 
from  its  origin,  and  by  the  fault  of  its  founders.  Born 
in  injustice,  it  has  ended  in  opprobrium.'^ 

Let  us  go  back  into  the  twilight  zone  of  history  for 
this  story  that  is  so  fitting  an  introduction  to  the  events 
of  which  we  are  a  part. 


THE  rOUETEEN  POINTS  311 

On  December  9,  18Y0,  the  E'orth  German  Confedera- 
tion, organized  after  Sadowa,  was  transformed  into  a 
German  Confederation  by  consent  of  all  its  members, 
with  the  King  of  Prussia  as  president.  But  Bismarck 
did  not  consider  this  sufficient  for  cementing  German 
unity,  to  which  most  Germans  had  looked  forward  ever 
since  the  days  of  the  Holy  Koman  Empire.  Eor  nearly 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  both  Austria  and  Prussia 
had  aspired  to  the  imperial  title,  and  Prussia  had  been 
able  to  block  all  Austrian  attempts  to  win  it  until  the 
seven  weeks'  war  proved  the  turning-point  that  defi- 
nitely put  Prussia  on  the  high  road  to  success,  and 
started  Austria  on  her  downward  path  that  ended  in  the 
debacle  of  1918.  Bismarck,  prime  minister  for  Prus- 
sia, who  dictated  the  lenient  terms  of  peace  to  Austria, 
had  labored  all  his  life  at  the  task  of  achieving  German 
unity.  "  Unity  and  centralization,"  he  said,  was  all 
that  was  needed. 

When  Prussia  entered  upon  the  war  against 
Prance  in  1870,  Bismarck  worked  harder  to  accom- 
plish his  object  than  ever  before,  and  hand  in  hand 
with  the  task  of  fighting  Prance  went  the  intrigues 
that  were  to  lay  low  all  opposition  among  the  independ- 
ent and  headstrong  German  leaders  who  feared  and 
envied  Prussia.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  King  of  Ba- 
varia undertook  the  mission  of  proposing  to  the  heads  of 
the  members  of  the  new  German  Confederation  that  the 
title  of  its  president  be  changed  to  that  of  emperor,  that 
he  rule  as  the  head  of  the  new  Deutsches  Reich,  the 
German  Empire,  a  title  which  even  to-day,  after  the 
revolution  has  passed  over  Germany,  and  the  crown  of 


312  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

the  Hohenzollern  has  rolled  in  the  dust,  is  retained  as 
the  appellation  of  the  German  Eepublic. 

The  king's  office  was  well  performed.  One  day  a 
deputation  from  the  Reichstag,  led  by  Herr  Simson, 
who  in  1848  presided  at  the  national  assembly  at  Frank- 
fort and  vainly  offered  the  imperial  crown  to  Frederick 
William  IV,  now  came  to  Versailles  to  offer  to  William 
I,  brother  of  Frederick  William,  the  cro\\m  that  Ger- 
many regarded  as  that  of  Charlemagne  and  of  the  Cae- 
sars, of  the  empire  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  was  just  170 
years  after  William's  ancestor,  then  known  as  elector  of 
Brandenburg,  had  acquired  the  title  of  King  of  Prussia, 
and  just  sixty-four  years  after  William  himself,  as  a 
child  in  arms,  had  fled  with  his  royal  parents  from 
Berlin  before  the  armies  of  Napoleon,  seeking  refuge 
in  the  fortress  at  Memel.  William  was  well  along  in 
years  now,  at  the  age  where  most  men  of  wealth  and  posi- 
tion would  have  been  glad  to  lay  down  the  cares  of  state. 
His  career,  begun  in  the  tempestuous  Napoleonic  times, 
had  included  participation  in  the  Bliicher  campaign 
against  Napoleon  in  1814  and  the  Waterloo  campaign 
of  1815,  and  attendance  with  his  father  at  the  Congress 
of  Vienna,  and  in  1858,  he  had  become  regent  of  Prus- 
sia in  the  place  of  his  mad  brother,  and  in  1861,  king. 

Before  the  eyes  of  the  world  the  proclamation  of  the 
emperor  at  Versailles  proceeded  smoothly  and  harmoni- 
ously. We  will  gaze  first  upon  that  historic  picture  be- 
fore we  penetrate  behind  the  scenes  and  behold  the 
strings  that  operate  the  puppets.  To  gain  a  better  idea 
of  how  the  Hall  of  Mirrors  looked  on  that  day,  we  will 
walk  almost  to  its  middle.     The  ceiling,  we  will  observe, 


W5 


c  CI 


55  73 

°  a 


a;a 


THE  FOUHTEEN  POINTS  S13 

is  divided  into  seven  compartments.  Each  contains  a 
picture  celebrating  the  virtues  of  Louis  XIV,  painted 
by  Lebrun.  Beginning  with  the  end  adjacent  to  the 
Hall  of  War  we  behold,  first,  the  passage  of  the  Rhine 
in  1672  and  the  capture  of  Maestricht,  1673;  second, 
the  preparation  of  the  land  and  sea  forces  by  Louis  in 
1672  ;  third,  a  council  of  war  held  by  Louis,  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  the  Prince  of  Conde,  and  the  Marshal  Turenne 
before  an  attack  on  the  Dutch  forts ;  fourth,  a  representa- 
tion of  Louis  XIV  ruling  alone,  with  the  legend  "  Le 
roi  gouverne  par  lui-meme,"  and  allegorical  figures  rep- 
resenting Germany,  Spain,  and  Holland ;  fifth,  the  king 
resolves  to  chastise  the  Dutch ;  sixth,  the  reconquest  of 
the  province  of  Eranche-Comte  in  1674;  seventh,  the 
capture  of  the  town  and  citadel  of  Ghent  in  1678. 

Take  your  place  under  the  fourth  panel,  virtually  in 
the  middle  of  the  long  hall.  Here  stood  William  I  of 
Hohenzollern  on  January  18,  1871. 

Here  also  was  placed  an  altar.  It  bore  a  red  cloth 
with  the  iron  cross  of  Prussia  in  black.  To  the  left  and 
the  right  of  the  altar  stood  deputations  from  the  Ger- 
man troops  who  had  come  to  Versailles  with  the  banners 
of  the  troops.  These  banners  were  held  by  standard- 
bearers  on  a  dais  on  the  east  end  of  the  hall.  They  in- 
cluded five  flags  of  the  Guards ;  five  flags  of  the  Land- 
wehr  Guards ;  eighteen  of  the  5th  Corps ;  ten  of  the  6th 
Corps ;  five  of  the  11th  Corps,  and  others,  fifty-six  in  all. 

Xear  King  William,  grouped  in  a  semicircle,  stood 
the  Crown  Prince  Frederick  William  of  Prussia,  the 
princes  Karl  and  Adelbert  of  Prussia ;  the  Crown  Prince 
of   Saxony  and  Prince  George;   the  grand  dukes  of 


314  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

Baden,  Saxony,  and  Oldenburg;  the  dukes  of  Coburg, 
Meiningen,  and  Altenburg;  the  princes  Otto,  Luitpold, 
and  Leopold  of  Bavaria;  Prince  William  and  Prince 
Augustus  and  Duke  Eugene  the  Elder  and  Eugene  the 
Younger  of  Wiirtemberg ;  the  hereditary  grand  dukes  of 
Saxony,  Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  and  Mecklenburg- 
Strelitz ;  the  Princes  of  Schaumburg-Lippe  and  Schwarz- 
burg-Rudolstadt ;  the  hereditary  Prince  of  Hohenzol- 
lern;  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse;  the  Duke  of  Augusten- 
burg;  the  princes  of  Wied,  Potous,  Lynar,  and  Pless; 
the  princes  of  Reuss,  Croy,  and  the  Baron  of  Courland. 

These  are  names  that  history  has  gathered  unto  her- 
self, to  be  stored  in  the  musty  old  archives  for  the 
scholar  and  the  student  of  forgotten  things;  they  have 
been  swept  out,  as  Carl  Sandburg  would  say,  on  God's 
great  dust-pan. 

At  the  side  of  the  princes  and  behind  them  stood  the 
generals  and  ministers.  At  the  left  were  Count  von 
Bismarck  and  Baron  von  Schleinitz.  At  the  right. 
Minister  of  State  Delbriick  and  Count  von  Moltke. 

The  king  wore  the  uniform  of  the  First  Guards,  in 
which  he  first  earned  field  rank  in  1S14.  He  wore  the 
cordon  of  the  order  of  the  Black  Eagle  of  Prussia,  the 
order  of  the  Red  Eagle,  the  full  insignia  of  the  order  of 
the  Garter,  and  the  Russian  order  of  St.  George. 

When  William  entered  at  12:15  o'clock  the  choir, 
made  up  of  members  of  three  regiments,  sang  ""  Jauch- 
zet  dem  Herrn  alle  Welt "  [^^  Praise  the  Lord  all  the 
Earth"].  A  prayer  was  then  read  by  the  Lutheran 
chaplain.  Dr.  Riigger.  The  chaplain  looked  up  at  the 
legend,''  Le  roi  gouverne  par  lui-meme/'  and  used  it  as 


THE  F0UETEE:N"  points  315 

the  theme  for  his  discourse.  This  was  followed  again 
by  prayer,  and  the  singing  of  the  hymn  "  Nun  danJcet 
alle  Gott''  ["Give  ye  all  thanks  unto  the  Lord"]. 
The  king,  followed  by  the  princes,  then  walked  over  to 
the  regimental  flags  and,  stepping  upon  the  dais,  de- 
clared to  the  assembled  body,  numbering  between  five 
hundred  and  six  hundred  officers,  that  he  accepted  the 
title  of  German  Emperor  at  the  request  of  the  people 
and  the  princes  of  Germany,  and  in  order  to  bring 
about  the  national  union  of  the  fatherland.  He  then 
said: 

"  I  command  my  chancellor  to  read  aloud  my  procla- 
mation to  the  German  people." 

Count  Bismarck  then  read  to  the  assembly  the  king's 
promise  that  he  would  do  what  the  princes  and  the  free 
towns  had  unanimously  desired,  add  the  title  of  imperial 
to  the  Prussian  crown,  and  use  the  imperial  title  in  all 
affairs  of  state.  He  spoke  of  a  change  of  frontier  which 
would  guarantee  Germany  against  future  attacks  by 
Prance,  and  the  hope  for  lasting  peace  and  freedom. 
The  king  closed,  and  the  Grand  Duke  of  Baden,  step- 
ping to  the  foreground,  exclaimed : 

''  Es  lehe  Seine  Majestdt  der  Deutsche  Kaiser  Wil- 
lielm,  hoch!  '* 

["  Long  live  his  Majesty  the  German  Emperor  Wil- 
liam, hoch!"] 

The  band  thereupon  struck  up  *'  Heil  dir  im  Sieger- 
hranz,"  and  the  emperor  and  the  crown  prince  embraced 
thrice.     The  ceremony  \vas  concluded. 

Harmoniously  enough  it  seemed  before  the  world,  yet 
several  of  its  principal  actors  were  to  disclose  in  later 


316  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

years  that  not  all  the  felicitations  had  come  willingly. 
It  had  been  an  arduous  task  for  Bismarck  to  gain  the 
consent  not  only  of  various  elements  of  the  German  Con- 
federation, but  of  King  William  himself,  to  have  the 
Prussian  monarch  made  German  emperor. 

^'^  What  do  you  wish  to  do,  give  me  the  title  of  major 
caraderiseV  declared  William,  when  Bismarck  first 
approached  him  on  the  subject,  referring  to  the  title 
which  it  was  the  custom  to  bestow  on  officers  of  the 
Prussian  Army  who  were  about  to  be  retired. 

"  Your  Majesty  would  not  wish  to  remain  eternally 
a  neuter  noun  das  Pr'dsidium,"  replied  Bismarck,  refer- 
ring to  the  title  of  president  of  the  German  Confedera- 
tion. 

For  a  long  time  Bismarck  was  not  able  to  convince 
King  William  that  he  could  make  the  imperial  office  a 
living  and  vital  thing.  William  hesitated,  the  crown 
prince  demurred.  Finally  William  consented,  but 
hardly  with  the  alacrity  with  which  the  more  recent 
William  II  would  have  accepted  the  imperial  office. 
Then  a  new  obstacle  presented  itself,  and  this  time  it 
was  the  style  of  the  imperial  title  that  caused  the  diffi- 
culty. 

William  was  ready  to  become  Emperor  of  Germany, 
but  Bismarck's  idea  that  he  should  be  named  Deutscher 
Kaiser  —  German  Emperor  —  hurt  his  susceptibilities. 
For  Emperor  of  Germany  meant  a  sovereign  over  all, 
whereas  German  Emperor  meant  merely  a  leader  among 
equals.  William  did  not  like  that,  and  would  not  budge 
an  inch  in  his  position.  Bismarck  cited  the  instance  of 
the  old  emperors,  who  did  not  term  themselves  emper- 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  317 

ors  of  Eome,  but  Eoman  emperors,  whicli  led  William 
to  remark  that  it  was  immaterial  to  him  what  they  did 
in  those  days ;  that  he  wanted  to  be  styled  Emperor  of 
Germany. 

The  ceremony  in  the  hall  of  mirrors  was  to  take  place 
the  following  day,  and  as  the  Grand  Duke  of  Baden  had 
already  been  chosen  to  give  the  "  liocli "  at  the  end  of 
the  imperial  discourse,  Bismarck  found  it  necessary  to 
admonish  him  to  be  careful  to  distinguish  between  the 
two  forms,  and  for  safety's  sake  to  give  a  ''  vive  "  for  y 
the  Emperor  William,  rather  than  for  the  Emperor  of 
Germany. 

And  so  the  spectacle  was  staged,  and  the  Grand  Duke 
of  Baden  carried  out  his  part,  and  there  stepped  down 
from  the   dais  to   receive  the   congratulations   of  the 
princes,  dukes,  generals,  and  men  of  lesser  rank  a  man 
who  had  just  been  proclaimed  emperor  and  who  was 
boiling  with  rage  within,  almost  beside  himself,  because 
he  deemed  that  he  had  been  used  as  a  dupe  by  a  crafty 
statesman.     Bismarck  has  told  the  story  of  what  fol- 
lowed.    Hardly  hiding  his  pique,  the  emperor  affected 
not  to  see  his  chancellor,  who  through  chicanery,  in- 
trigue, hidden  pressure,  force,  and  argumentative  power 
had  just  wrung  consent  from  the  unwilling  German 
princes  and  placed  the  imperial  title  upon  the  head  of  a 
Hohenzollern.     His  Majesty  was  about  to  pass  out  of 
the  palace  by  the  famous  stairs  of  the  princes  when  he 
encountered  Bismarck  standing  in  the  open  space  before 
the  steps.     He  passed  him  without  recognition,  and  gave 
his  hand  to  the  generals  who  stood  behind  Bismarck. 
Eor  several  days  William  persisted  in  an  uucompromis- 


318  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

ing  attitude,  and  it  was  weeks  before  he  restored  his 
chancelJor  fully  into  his  confidence. 

Now  comes  a  curious  and  most  unusual  circumstance, 
which  illustrates  how  strange  are  the  ways  of  Fate,  and 
how  portentous  events  grow  out  of  little  things.  I 
mean  to  refer  to  an  incident  that  is  almost  responsible 
for  the  founding  of  the  German  Empire  and  the  procla- 
mation of  William  as  German  Emperor  on  the  day  I 
have  just  described,  and  to  tell  its  story  I  must  go  again 
into  the  twilight  zone  of  history. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Eranco-Prussian  War,  when 
the  news  of  the  French  defeats  reached  Paris,  the  per- 
sonal and  private  correspondence  of  the  Emperor  Napo- 
leon III  and  of  the  imperial  family  was  gathered  to- 
gether and  sent  out  of  France.  It  reached  the  frontier 
immediately  after  the  defeat  at  Sedan,  and  there  was 
stopped  by  the  prefect  of  police  of  the  provisional  gov- 
ernment, which  had  been  set  up  in  place  of  the  empire. 
A  commission  was  named  to  publish  the  documents, 
with  a  view  of  determining  the  steps  that  led  up  to  the 
war. 

The  correspondence  was  duly  printed  in  an  official 
publication,  dated  September  24,  1870,  and  disclosed 
that  virtually  none  of  the  letters  discussed  anything  but 
routine  matters,  and  that  none  gave  any  clue  to  the 
diplomatic  negotiations  which  the  nation  was  certain 
would  exonerate  the  French  people  from  complicity  in 
making  war.  It  was  evident  that  some  of  the  important 
letters  had  been  removed.  An  investigation  was  then 
made  at  the  house  of  M.  Rouher,  former  president  of  the 
senate  and  virtually  vice-emperor,  and  it  was  discovered 


THE  FOTJETEE:^^  points  319 

that  he  had  taken  flight  with  his  family  and  departed 
for  England.  Rouher  had  a  country  home  at  Cergay,  a 
chateau  near  Brunoy,  southeast  of  Paris.  This  house 
was  reached  on  October  10,  1870,  by  the  I7th  Division 
of  Mecklenburg  infantry,  of  which  the  advance  guard 
took  quarters  in  this  chateau.  In  making  a  thorough 
search  of  the  premises  according  to  the  time-honored 
custom  of  the  German  Army,  the  soldiers  came  upon  a 
great  quantity  of  papers  and  letters.  The  men  began 
to  throw  them  to  the  winds,  but  an  officer  with  more 
intelligence  than  the  soldiers  immediately  recognized 
that  they  might  be  of  value  to  his  chiefs  and  called  a 
halt.  He  had  the  find  put  in  boxes  and  shipped  to 
Count  von  Bismarck,  then  occupying  the  home  of  Mme. 
Jesse  at  No.  14  Rue  de  Provence  in  Versailles,  the 
house  that  is  to-day  occupied  by  Henri  Jesse,  the  son 
of  Mme.  Jesse. 

It  is  certain  that  Bismarck  opened  these  boxes.  It 
is  certain  that  he  read  these  historic  French  documents, 
covering  a  number  of  years.  What  was  in  them? 
Only  vague  references  have  been  made  to  them.  No 
one  not  in  the  secret  circle  of  German  diplomacy,  it 
seems,  was  ever  permitted  to  read  them.  But  that  they 
contained  matters  of  the  greatest  import  to  Prance  and 
to  Germany  all  historians  agree.  In  fact,  many  of 
them  dwell  upon  the  plans,  the  reports,  the  memoranda, 
and  correspondence  that  covered  some  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult years  in  European  diplomacy.  Only  once  did  Bis- 
marck see  fit  to  publish  extracts  from  these  papers. 
This  came  in  October,  1871,  when  Benedetti,  ambassa- 
dor of  France  to  Germany,  whose  confidence  was  shame- 


320  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

fully  misused  by  Bismarck,  published  his  book,  '"  Ma 
Mission  en  Prusse."  Bismarck  published  a  number  of 
papers  purporting  to  deal  with  various  demands  made 
by  Napoleon  III  at  the  time  of  the  readjustment  of  the 
Luxemburg  question  by  the  revision  of  the  treaty  of 
1839  in  186G. 

It  was  then  that  a  French  journal  made  the  inter- 
esting disclosure  that  in  addition  to  the  papers  pub- 
lished by  Bismarck,  there  were  included  in  the  Cergay 
documents  the  correspondence  between  the  French  Gov- 
ernment and  the  prime  ministers  of  Bavaria  and  Wiir- 
temberg  of  the  years  1865  and  1866,  the  very  years 
when  those  two  nations  were  doing  everything  in  their 
power  to  prevent  Prussia  from  gaining  the  imperial  title 
by  her  growing  ascendency  and  military  victory  over 
Austria.  Appealing  to  the  French  Emperor,  the  south- 
ern states  of  Germany  endeavored  to  gain  his  help 
against  Prussia,  Count  von  Bray,  who  was  minister  of 
foreign  affairs  of  Bavaria  at  this  time,  was  an  inti- 
mate friend  of  Count  von  Beust,  the  Austrian  prime 
minister.  Bray  arrived  at  Versailles  on  October  23, 
1870,  about  the  time  that  the  heavily  laden  boxes  of 
documents  reached  Bismarck  from  Cergay.  Up  to  this 
moment  opposition  to  the  idea  of  Prussian  leadership 
in  a  German  confederation  and  empire  had  been  stead- 
ily growing,  and  not  the  least  of  the  opponents  were 
Bavaria  and  Wiirtemberg.  Bray  came  to  Versailles 
determined  to  carry  out  his  own  idea,  and  yet  in  a  few 
days  had  swung  round  to  Bismarck's  view.  No  less 
sudden  was  the  conversion  of  the  other  southern  states, 
and  the  two  historians  who  have  given  the  greatest 


THE  FOUKTEEJSr  POINTS  321 

thought  to  this  odd  chapter  in  the  story  of  the  German 
empire  —  M.  Joseph  Eeinach,  to  whose  research  we  are 
indebted  for  the  details,  and  von  Ruville,  a  professor  of 
the  university  of  Halle  who  wrote  a  history  of  the 
restoration  of  the  empire,  both  pointed  to  the  posses- 
sion by  Bismarck  of  these  secret  documents  involving 
the  integrity  of  the  south  German  states  as  the  reason 
for  the  collapse  of  all  opposition.  In  fact  von  Ruville 
wrote :  "  The  secret  documents  of  the  ministers  of 
the  south  German  states  in  the  power  of  Bismarck  ex- 
plains the  easy  denouement  of  the  negotiations  of  No- 
vember, 1870.  The  idea  forces  itself  upon  me:  here 
is  the  key  to  the  foundation  of  the  German  Empire." 

What  is  in  these  secret  documents  ?  What  disclosures 
did  Bismarck  find  that  enabled  him  to  gain  the  whip 
hand  over  his  recalcitrant  compatriots  ?  The  world  has 
learned  much  of  the  story  of  the  German  Empire  within 
the  last  few  years ;  it  is  fitting  that  it  should  learn  the 
whole  story  of  how  it  was  founded.  That  story  is  con- 
tained in  the  secret  archives  of  Napoleon  III,  long  since 
removed  from  Versailles  and  carted  to  Berlin,  where 
they  rest  to-day  among  the  documents  that  have  been 
garnered  from  near  and  far  by  that  amazing  system 
which  had  its  headquarters  in  the  Wilhelmstrasse.  And 
the  world  shall  know.  Thanks  to  M.  Piccionni,  di- 
rector of  the  French  archives,  and  M.  Joseph  Reinach, 
one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  commission  of  diplo- 
matic archives,  the  documents  are  to  be  returned  to 
France.  For  Article  245  of  Section  11  of  the  treaty 
of  peace,  dealing  with  special  provisions,  reads : 

Within  six  months  of  the  coming  into  force  of  the  present  treaty 


322  THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS 

the  German  government  must  restore  to  the  French  government 
the  trophies,  archives,  historical  souvenirs  or  works  of  art  carried 
away  from  France  by  the  German  authorities  in  the  course  of  the 
war  of  1870-1871  and  during  this  last  war,  in  accordance  with  a 
list  which  will  be  communicated  to  it  by  the  French  government: 
particularly  the  French  flags  taken  in  the  course  of  the  war  of 
1870-1871  and  all  the  political  papers  taken  by  the  German  au- 
thorities on  October  10,  1870,  at  the  chateau  of  Cer^ay,  near 
Brunoy,  (Seine-et-Oise)  belonging  at  the  time  to  M.  Rouher, 
formerly  minister  of  state. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

How  Count  von  Brockdorff-Rantzau  made  use  of  his  fifteen 
days,  which  were  pretty  dark,  and  his  fifteen  nights,  which  were 
just  as  dark. 

From  the  very  first  the  diplomatic  battle  between  the 
Germans  and  the  Allied  and  Associated  powers  which 
followed  the  presentation  of  the  treaty  of  peace  was  a 
fight  for  interpretation  of  the  Fourteen  Points. 

That,  as  I  have  reiterated  again  and  again,  was  the 
basis  on  which  the  Western  powers  agreed  to  make 
peace.  That  was  the  basis  on  which  Germany  signed 
the  terms  of  the  armistice.     And  between  November  11, 

1918,  the  day  the  armistice  was  signed,  and  May  7, 

1919,  the  day  the  completed  treaty  was  handed  to  the 
Germans,  it  was  purely  a  question  of  interpretation. 
That  it  remains  to-day. 

Count  von  Brockdorff-Rantzau  had  said  that  after- 
noon at  the  Trianon : 

We  are  not  quite  without  protection.  You  yourselves  have 
brought  us  an  ally;  namely,  the  right  which  is  guaranteed  by  the 
treaty,  by  the  principles  of  the  peace.  The  allied  and  associated 
governments  forswore  in  the  time  between  October  5  and  Novem- 
ber 5,  1918,  a  peace  of  violence,  and  wrote  a  "peace  of  justice" 
on  their  banner.  On  October  5,  1918,  the  German  government 
proposed  the  principles  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  of 
North  America  as  the  basis  of  peace,  and  on  November  5  their 
secretary  of  state,  Mr.  Lansing,  declared  that  the  allied  and  asso- 
ciated powers  agreed  to  this  basis  with  two  definite  deviations. 
The  principles  of  President  Wilson  have  thus  become  binding  for 

323 


324  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

both  parties  to  the  war,  you  as  well  as  for  us,  and  also  for  our 
former  allies.  .  .  . 

So  it  was  but  natural  and  logical  that  when  the  treaty, 
with  its  far-reaching  provisions,  came  into  the  hands  of 
the  Germans,  they  declared  it  violated  the  principles 
for  which  the  American  President  had  pledged  his  word, 
and  which  had  been  guaranteed  them  in  the  armistice. 

"  It  is  a  sentence  of  death,"  said  Scheidemann ;  "  the 
Entente's  conditions  contradict  the  Fourteen  Points. 
What  has  become  to-day  of  the  exchange  of  guarantees 
of  disarmament,  pledged  in  the  fourth  ?  And  as  for 
the  fifth,  Germany  gives  its  colonies  to  the  Allies,  as 
well  as  rights  in  Africa  acquired  by  virtue  of  diverse 
international  conventions." 

"  Down  to  the  least  detail  the  intention  of  France 
to  humble  Germany  is  visible,"  said  Professor  Schiick- 
ing. 

*^  This  peace  is  a  peace  of  violence,"  said  Prince  Lich- 
novsky,  former  ambassador  to  England.  ^'  It  is  not 
based  upon  justice;  to  me  it  seems  to  be  dictated  under 
the  influence  of  Marshal  Foch." 

On  May  8  the  German  cabinet  met  and  drew  up  a 
proclamation  to  the  German  nation.  It  declared  that 
the  German  people  had  loyally  carried  out  the  terms 
of  the  armistice.  "  The  German  people  bore  all  the 
burdens,  trusting  in  the  promise  given  by  the  Allies  in 
the  note  of  November  5  that  the  peace  would  be  a  peace 
of  right  on  the  basis  of  President  Wilson's  Fourteen 
Points.  What,  instead  of  that,  is  now  given  us  in  the 
peace  terms  is  in  contradiction  of  the  promise."  On 
May  9  the  Imperial  Government  and  the  Prussian  State 


THE  rOUETEEN  POINTS  325 

Government  issued  a  joint  proclamation  to  the  German 
East  mark,  deploring  the  demands  for  the  cession  of 
Upper  Silesia,  Posen,  and  Dantzic,  which,  they  said, 
'^  are  so  many  attacks  upon  the  right  of  self-determina- 
tion of  the  population  of  these  territories,  which  have 
acquired  by  German  work  and  German  culture  all  that 
which  to-day  constitutes  their  chief  excellence.  These 
attacks  are  entirely  incompatible  with  the  principles 
announced  by  President  Wilson.  .  .  ." 

The  German  stock  exchange  closed  for  three  days. 
The  German  states  agreed  to  suspend  public  amuse- 
ments. The  Government  considered  a  day  —  nay  a 
week  —  of  mourning.  But,  said  "  Ereiheit,"  the  Ber- 
lin organ  of  the  radical  socialists: 

"  From  the  standpoint  of  the  imperialist  policy  of 
force  such  as  Germany  pursued  at  Brest-Litovsk,  the 
peace  terms  of  the  entente  must  be  regarded  as  quite 
moderate." 

Germany  had  forgotten  Brest-Litovsk. 

On  May  9  Count  von  Brockdorff-Bantzau  presented 
to  M.  Clemenceau  four  notes,  the  first  of  a  long  series  of 
notes  taking  exceptions  to  the  treaty  of  peace  and  sug- 
gesting modifications.  The  very  first  note  bore  an  allu- 
sion to  the  Fourteen  Points:  "  They  (the  Germans) 
have  had  to  realize  that  on  essential  points  the  basis  of 
the  peace  of  right  agreed  upon  between  the  belligerents 
has  been  abandoned."  The  Allies  replied  at  once  that 
"  they  wish  to  remind  the  German  delegation  that  they 
have  framed  the  terms  of  the  treaty  with  constant 
thought  of  the  principles  upon  which  the  armistice  and 
the  negotiations  of  peace  were  proposed ;  they  can  admit 


326  THE  ADYEXTUKES  OF 

of  no  discussion  of  their  right  to  insist  upon  the  terms 
of  the  peace  substantially  as  drafted." 

How  extensively  Germany's  boundary-lines  were  af- 
fected by  the  treaty  of  peace  may  be  gleaned  from  an 
examination  of  the  various  changes  it  provided  for. 
First  of  all,  Alsace  and  Lorraine  reverted  to  France,  and 
here  the  German  boundary  went  back  to  the  Rhine, 
where  it  had  been  in  1870.  The  Saar  basin  is  a  con- 
tinuation of  Lorraine,  and  here  the  German  line  receded 
at  least  temporarily  and  perhaps  for  all  time.  German 
sovereignty  had  not  extended  over  Luxemburg,  but  it 
was  a  member  of  the  German  customs  union,  and  its 
railways  were  a  part  of  the  German  system.  This  was 
wiped  out  by  the  treaty,  and  Germany  agreed  to  abide 
by  all  arrangements  which  the  Allied  and  Associated 
powers  might  conclude  with  this  government.  The 
boundary  receded  beyond  Prussian  Moresnet,  and  the 
circles  of  Eupen  and  Malmedy,  also  known  as  Prussian 
Wallonia,  although  the  treaty  stipulated  that  within  six 
months  after  the  treaty  comes  into  force  the  Belgians 
will  open  registers  at  Eupen  and  Malmedy  so  that  all 
who  wish  may  record  in  writing  their  desire  to  have 
the  whole  or  a  part  of  the  territories  remain  under  Ger- 
man sovereignty.  The  boundary  receded  also  in 
Schleswig,  where  the  treaty  attempts  to  right  Germany's 
little  omission  to  let  the  Danes  have  a  plebiscite,  prom- 
ised by  Bismarck  in  the  Treaty  of  Prague  between 
Prussia  and  Austria  in  1866.  The  plebiscite  to  come 
covers  virtually  two  thirds  of  Schleswig,  the  southern- 
most line  passing  a  short  distance  to  the  south  of  Flens- 
burg.     Dantzic  becomes  a  free  city  under  the  guaranty 


THE  FOUETEE:^r  POINTS  327 

of  tlie  League  of  ISTations,  and  an  international  area  is 
provided  in  order  to  give  Poland  access  to  the  sea.  A 
considerable  recession  of  sovereignty  is  provided  for  in 
East  Prussia,  although  plebiscites  are  to  be  held  in  a 
district  between  the  southern  frontier  of  East  Prussia 
and  the  western  and  northern  boundary  of  the  Regie- 
rungshezirh  Allenstein  to  its  junction  with  the  north- 
ern boundary  between  the  Kreise  of  Oletsko  and  Anger- 
burg;  thence  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Kreise  of 
Oletsko  to  its  junction  with  the  old  frontier  of  East 
Prussia.  In  the  area  between  the  Nogat  and  the  Vis- 
tula the  inhabitants  also  will  be  asked  to  decide  whether 
they  wish  German  or  Polish  sovereignty.  A  strip 
around  Memel,  at  the  northeasternmost  part  of  Prussia, 
is  also  renounced,  and  Germany  will  accept  the  deci- 
sion of  the  Allies  regarding  the  final  disposition  of 
these  territories.  Upper  Silesia  receives  a  plebiscite 
at  which  the  inhabitants  will  determine  their  prefer- 
ence between  Poland  and  Germany ;  here  are  located  the 
principal  coal-mines.  The  new  Kingdom  of  Poland 
is  carved  out  of  the  heart  of  the  former  Prussia,  so 
that  the  German  boundaries  are  considerably  changed 
here,  and  what  was  formerly  Prussian  Poland,  or,  as 
the  Germans  would  say,  Polish  Prussia,  will  be  joined 
to  the  Polish  kingdom  in  Russia  to  form  the  new  state. 
In  addition  Germany  suffers  the  following  modifica- 
tions of  sovereignty :  Germany  is  to  lease  space  in  the 
ports  of  Hamburg  and  Stettin  for  ninety-nine  years  to 
Czecho-Slovakia,  in  order  to  give  that  inland  state  access 
to  the  sea.  An  international  regime  is  provided  for 
the  Rhine,  part  of  the  Moselle,  the  Elbe,  the  Oder,  the 


328  THE  ADVE^^TURES  OF 

^N'iemen  and  the  Danube.  There  is  a  modification  of 
control  of  the  Kiel  Canal,  which  is  to  be  "  maintained 
free  and  open  to  the  vessels  of  commerce  and  of  war 
of  all  nations  at  peace  with  Germany  on  terms  of  entire 
equality."  Germany  does  not  lose  sovereignty  over  the 
Ehine  provinces,  but  may  not  build  forts  or  quarter 
troops  w^est  of  the  Rhine  or  west  of  a  line  drawn  fifty 
kilometers  east  of  the  Rhine. 

Count  von  Brockdorff-Rantzau  now  began  to  attack 
the  treaty  in  a  series  of  rifle-volleys  and  cannon-broad- 
sides. He  sniped  at  the  League  of  ^NTations;  he  fired 
grape-shot  and  canister  at  the  idea  that  one  foot  of 
German  soil  should  pass  into  alien  hands.  His  notes 
came  almost  daily.  He  presented  substitutes  for  cer- 
tain clauses  of  the  treaty,  urged  the  amelioration  of 
others,  and  suggested  that  others  be  wiped  out  entirely. 
The  council  replied  to  his  notes  as  quickly  as  possible. 
The  four  leaders  of  the  conference  worked  at  a  tre- 
mendous rate  of  speed.  Even  when  the  German  ques- 
tions were  answered  by  experts  and  technical  advisers, 
the  four  revised  and  edited  them  and  thoroughly  di- 
gested their  contents  before  sending  them  to  Versailles. 
In  addition  they  continued  their  routine  work,  and  this 
included  such  difficult  tasks  as  preparing  another  treaty 
of  peace  for  presentation  to  the  Austrian  delegates  at 
St.  Germain-en-Laye ;  taking  measures  to  deal  with 
Bela  Kun  and  the  Bolshevist  situation  in  Hungary; 
continuing  consideration  of  the  claims  of  Italy,  Ru- 
mania, and  Greece,  and  hearing  pleas  on  a  great  variety 
of  subjects. 

The  German  delegation  was  particularly  opposed  to 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  329 

cession  of  the  Saar  basin.  Ignoring  the  fact  that  the 
League  of  Nations  would  determine  the  government  of 
the  basin  for  fifteen  years  at  least,  the  Germans  treated 
the  subject  as  if  the  basin  already  had  been  turned  over 
to  France.  The  German  proposals  and  the  detailed 
reply  of  the  Peace  Conference  on  this  subject  are  con- 
tained in  the  notes  of  the  Germans,  dated  May  13  and 
16,  and  in  the  reply  dated  May  24. 

In  the  first  of  these  notes  Count  von  Brockdorff- 
Eantzau  takes  up  the  question  of  cession  of  German 
territory.  He  raises  objection  to  the  fact  that  Den- 
mark, a  neutral  country,  seeks  adjustment  of  the  fron- 
tier difiiculties  in  Schleswig  through  the  medium  of 
the  Peace  Conference,  and  asks  by  what  authority  the 
conference  is  enabled  to  regulate  this  question.  He 
adds,  however,  that  if  the  Danish  Government  wishes 
to  press  its  claims  by  way  of  the  peace  negotiations, 
the  German  Government  has  no  intention  of  opposing 
it,  a  little  hint  which  definitely  alines  Denmark  with 
the  Allied  group.  He  then  takes  up  the  status  of  the 
Saar  Basin,  which,  he  says,  is  inhabited  purely  by 
Germans,  and  declares  that  the  new  regime  will  sever 
the  relations  of  people  of  the  Saar  with  the  empire. 
The  whole  population  is  refusing  energetically  to  leave 
its  native  land.  He  fears  that  after  Germany  has 
made  reparations  to  the  Allies  it  may  not  have  the 
money  necessary  in  gold  after  fifteen  years  to  buy  the 
mines  from  Prance,  and  if  it  does,  the  committee  on 
reparations  probably  will  not  permit  the  use  of  the 
money  in  this  manner.  He  remarks  that  Allied  opin- 
ion regards  the  cession  of  the  Saar  mines  as  just  com- 


330  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

pensation  for  the  destruction  of  the  coal-mines  in  north- 
ern France.  He  believes  that  means  of  indemnifica- 
tion can  be  found  other  than  giving  up  sovereignty  over 
this  territory.  Germany  will  be  ready  to  deliver  coal 
to  make  up  what  France  lacks,  and  to  enter  into  an  ar- 
rangement to  study  this  problem  and  satisfy  the  needs 
of  France  either  from  the  mines  of  the  Saar  or  the 
Kuhr.  In  an  annex  appended  to  the  note  of  May  16 
the  German  economic  experts  suggest  that  in  treating 
the  question  of  the  Saar  on  a  new  basis  France  and 
Belgium  designate  how  much  and  what  different  kinds 
of  coal  are  needed  in  the  various  regions,  and  propose 
that  enterprises  damaged  in  the  north  of  France  be 
given  an  interest  in  German  coal-mines  that  deliver  this 
coal.  They  declare  that  the  measures  for  regulating 
the  Saar  territory  suppress  the  liberty  of  Germany's 
economic  life  and  paralyze  the  productive  capacity  of 
Germany.  They  propose  in  their  place  a  series  of 
guaranties  for  the  delivery  of  the  coal,  including  giv- 
ing French  enterprises  an  interest  and  an  essential  in- 
fluence in  the  administration  of  the  German  enter- 
prises, and  providing  for  a  commission  composed  of 
representatives  of  France,  Germany,  and  Belgium  to 
ration  the  delivery  of  coal  between  the  three  countries  if 
this  is  found  necessary. 

The  reply  of  May  24  is  signed  by  M.  Clemenceau. 
He  says  that  the  domination  of  the  Saar  that  the 
Germans  call  odious  is  that  of  the  League  of  Nations, 
and  that  the  plan  of  control  has  been  developed  care- 
fully with  the  idea  not  only  of  finding  compensation 
for  the  mines  destroyed  in  the  north  of  France,  but 


THE  FOURTEEI^  POINTS  331 

of  assuring  the  rights  and  well  being  of  the  population. 
Special  rights  and  privileges  are  assured  the  inhab- 
itants, he  says,  and  at  the  end  of  fifteen  years  they  will 
have  the  right  to  make  their  choice  in  complete  liberty, 
coerced  neither  to  the  advantage  of  France  nor  of  Ger- 
many.    He  adds : 

As  the  greater  part  of  your  two  notes  is  devoted  to  the  status 
of  the  basin  of  the  Saar,  I  must  declare  that  the  allied  and  asso- 
ciated governments  have  chosen  this  particular  form  of  reparation 
because  they  regard  the  destruction  of  the  mines  in  the  north  of 
France  as  having  been  an  act  of  such  a  nature  that  special  repara- 
tion was  needed  as  an  example:  the  simple  delivery  of  a  quantity 
of  coal,  determined  or  undetermined,  was  not  considered  adequate. 

The  conference,  he  continues,  cannot  accept  the  sug- 
gestions for  the  regulation  of  the  mines.  No  arrange- 
ment of  this  character  can  give  France  the  same  se- 
curity and  certitude  as  when  she  owns  the  mines  and 
is  free  to  exploit  them.  To  give  French  owners  an  in- 
terest in  German  mines  would  be  of  doubtful  value  to 
them  and  would  create  a  confusion  of  interests.  The 
complete  and  immediate  transfer  of  the  mines  to  France 
constitutes  the  quickest  solution,  solving  at  once  the 
question  of  compensation  for  the  mines  destroyed;  this 
solution  also  has  the  advantage  of  making  the  use  of 
the  mines  help  apply  on  the  bill  for  reparations. 

"  Strategic  reasons,'^  said  the  secret  agreement  with 
Eussia,  in  which  France  asserted  her  wish  to  regulate 
the  Saar  basin. 

"  Reparation  for  damages  sustained  in  the  mines  of 
the  north,"  says  Clemenceau. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  originally  President  Wil- 
son opposed  the  outright  annexation  of  the  Saar  basin 


332  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

by  France,  and  that  because  of  his  opposition  the  League 
of  Nations  was  made  the  administrator  for  that  terri- 
tory. The  President  and  the  American  mission  had 
also  opposed  the  trial  of  the  kaiser,  a  view  that  was 
carefully  elucidated  by  Secretary  Lansing,  who  declared 
that  w^ar  was  legal,  and  that  laws  did  not  exist  bringing 
into  court  a  ruler  who  made  war;  that  it  was  for  his 
own  people  to  place  him  on  trial,  and  not  his  enemies. 
It  was  largely  through  the  influence  of  the  American 
members  of  the  Peace  Conference  that  this  body  agreed 
that  the  kaiser  could  be  indicted  only  on  moral  grounds. 
President  Wilson,  on  the  advice  of  his  financial  experts, 
had  also  been  against  the  policy  of  demanding  from 
Germany  a  sum  in  reparation  so  large  that  Germany 
palpably  could  not  pay,  or  of  making  the  amount  to  be 
paid  indefinite.  The  American  estimate  of  the  total 
amount  available  in  Germany  for  reparation  was 
$25,000,000,000,  but  France  would  not  hear  of  it,  as 
it  materially  reduced  the  amount  which  France  ex- 
pected to  get  from  Germany.  International  bankers, 
however,  sought  to  have  a  definite  amount  fixed  in  order 
that  they  might  know  just  what  Germany  would  pay, 
and  thereby  gage  the  amount  of  loans  to  be  made  to  the 
various  nations.  When  America  first  insisted  on  nam- 
ing this  sum,  Mr.  Lloyd  George  as  well  as  M.  Clemen- 
ceau  opposed  the  idea,  the  British  prime  minister  assert- 
ing that  he  had  promised  his  countrymen  that  Germany 
should  pay  all  damages  down  to  the  last  farthing.  Thus 
the  promises  of  political  leaders  to  their  nations  stood 
in  the  way  of  a  sensible  adjustment  of  a  difficult  situa- 
tion.    The  German  delegates  were  of  course  well  in- 


THE  FOUKTEEN^  POINTS  333 

formed  on  this  subject.  They  made  all  these  points 
that  had  puzzled  the  conference  leaders  the  object  of 
attacks. 

The  time  for  filing  objections  to  the  treaty  expired 
May  21,  but  was  extended  until  May  29  at  the  request 
of  Germany.  When  the  final  day  came,  it  was  felt  in 
Paris  that  the  German  cause  had  been  handled  unsuc- 
cessfully. Count  von  Brockdorff-Eantzau  had  sent  a 
large  number  of  notes  and  had  filled  443  printed  pages 
with  protests,  but  had  made  no  conciliatory  impression. 
The  Germans  then  presented  their  formal  counter- 
proposals. Between  the  time  of  this  presentation  and 
the  allied  reply  on  June  16  a  change  of  view  appeared 
to  take  place  in  Allied  circles,  and  it  was  freely  reported 
that  concessions  were  about  to  be  made.  Any  one  who 
had  watched  the  situation  develop,  had  followed  the 
course  of  events  in  Germany,  where  the  tension  was 
growing  and  the  agitation  against  eventually  signing 
the  treaty  appeared  to  be»  making  headway,  and  was 
aware  of  the  jealousy  with  which  France  guarded  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  as  it  stood,  obtained  after  an  ex- 
traordinary amount  of  pressure,  could  well  understand 
how  France  now  became  perturbed  at  the  idea  that  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain  might  wish  to  make 
concessions  to  the  Germans.  But  it  was  not  so  much  the 
American  attitude  which  France  feared,  but  that  of 
Mr.  Lloyd  George,  who  was  supposed  to  favor  these 
concessions.  Mr.  Lloyd  George  had  stood  with  France 
in  drawing  up  the  treaty,  and  his  defection  now  might 
be  disastrous  to  the  claims  of  France. 

It  was  reported  in  British  circles  at  this  time  that 


334  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

pressure  was  being  brought  on  Mr.  Llojd  George  to 
effect  modifications  of  the  treaty  of  peace  to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  Germans,  and  that  this  pressure  came  from 
three  sources:  first,  from  the  liberal  groups  and  labor 
leaders  in  Great  Britain,  which  declared  the  terms  to 
be  too  severe;  secondly,  from  financial  circles,  which 
wanted  the  amount  to  be  paid  by  the  Germans  named 
in  figures  instead  of  an  indefinite  declaration;  and, 
thirdly,  from  persons  of  influence  who  felt  that  Germany 
might  not  sign  unless  concessions  were  made,  and  who 
desired  her  signature  even  at  the  expense  of  concessions. 
These  reports  were  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  prime 
minister  by  an  interpellation  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
so  that  Mr.  Lloyd  George  felt  impelled  to  issue  a  state- 
ment denying  that  pressure  had  been  brought  upon  him 
from  any  source  whatever.  It  remains  true,  neverthe- 
less, that  sentiment  along  the  lines  indicated  was  ex- 
pressed in  Great  Britain,  although  no  direct  effort  may 
have  been  made  to  influence  the  action  of  the  prime 
minister. 

The  comment  of  the  Labor  party  on  the  treaty  is 
worth  quoting.  The  views  of  the  labor  group  were  first 
expressed  by  Arthur  Henderson,  but  as  they  represented 
largely  his  personal  opinion,  and  had  been  prepared 
without  consulting  the  labor  leaders  in  Parliament,  they 
were  not  regarded  as  necessarily  representative  of  the 
Labor  party  as  a  whole.  A  new  set  of  views  were  issued 
in  the  name  of  the  Parliamentary  Labor  party  and  of 
the  national  executive  of  the  Labor  Party,  these  having 
been  drawn  up  at  a  conference  at  the  House  of  Commons, 
where  Adamson,  the  parliamentary  leader,  was  in  the 


THE  rOUETEEJST  POINTS  335 

chair  and  Henderson  was  present.  Eamsay  MacDonald 
was  at  that  time  in  Bern.  The  announcement  in  sub- 
stance emphasized  the  following  arguments : 

The  treaty  is  defective  fundamentally  in  that  it  accepts  and  is 
based  upon  the  very  political  principles  which  were  the  ultimate 
cause  of  the  war.  It  violates  the  understanding  upon  which  the 
armistice  is  signed  .  .  .  and  is  therefore  a  repudiation  of  the  spirit 
and  letter  of  the  declaration  of  President  Wilson,  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  and  other  allied  statesmen.  ...  [On  the  question  of  repa- 
ration the  Labor  party  insisted  that]  Germany  must  make  full 
reparation  for  the  wanton  destruction  in  all  the  allied  countries, 
and  we  must  consider  that  the  payment  by  Germany  of  the  sum  of 
5,000,000,000  pounds  sterling  is  not  excessive  in  view  of  the  dam- 
age done.  .  .  . 

The  draft  treaty  cedes  to  France  full  ownership  of  the  coal 
mines  in  the  Saar  basin.  The  terms  of  the  armistice  never  so  much 
as  hinted  at  such  a  possibility.  France  should  undoubtedly  receive 
from  Germany  a  suflficient  supply  of  coal  to  compensate  her  for  the 
temporary  loss  of  her  own  mining  resources.  This  claim  can  be 
met  without  handing  over  the  population  of  the  Saar  districts  even 
to  a  neutral  administration.  The  provision  in  the  treaty  requiring 
the  German  Government  at  the  end  of  fifteen  years  to  buy  out  at 
valuation  the  mines  in  any  part  of  the  Saar  valley  which  may  be 
restored  to  Germany  as  the  result  of  a  plebiscite,  would  involve 
the  violation  of  the  principles  of  self-determination,  equivalent  to 
disguised  annexation. 

The  statement  declares  that  in  the  delimitation  of 
the  frontiers  of  Poland  there  is  a  contravention  of  the 
thirteenth  point  that  the  new  Polish  state  should  con- 
tain only  genuinely  Polish  elements.  It  feels  that  the 
military  occupation  of  the  left  bank  of  the  Khine  for 
fifteen  years  will  impose  fresh  burdens  of  building 
armament  and  compulsory  military  service  on  the  peo- 
ple and  that  '^  it  will  be  impossible  to  take  full  advan- 
tage of  the  enforced  disarmament  of  Germany  in  order 
to  secure  general  disarmament  and  demilitarization." 
On  the  league  the  party  says : 


336  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

The  League  of  Nations,  to  be  effective,  should  be  an  organ  of 
international  justice,  inclusive  of  all  free  peoples,  and  not  as  it 
will  be  under  the  peace  treaty,  a  restricted  instrument  of  the  vic- 
torious coalition.  This  central  aim  can  best  be  attained  by  the 
admission  of  Germany  to  the  League  as  speedily  as  possible  after 
her  signature  to  the  peace  treaty.  The  League  should  also  be 
strengthened  by  being  made  more  directly  representative  of 
peoples  and  parliaments. 

I  am  giving  this  resume  of  the  protest  of  the  Labor 
party  because  the  attitude  of  this  group  may  be  of  im- 
portance in  the  future  development  of  English  politics 
and  of  England's  attitude  toward  the  treaty  in  times 
to  come.  A  most  drastic  condemnation  of  the  treaty 
of  peace  came  also  from  the  central  organ  of  the  workers 
in  Paris,  the  Confederation  Generale  du  Travail;  but 
as  France  is  largely  an  agricultural  country  and  the 
labor  group  is  but  thirteen  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  its 
influence  is  not  comparable  to  that  of  the  labor  elements 
in  England.  The  Confederation  saw  in  the  treaty  the 
definite  negation  of  the  right  of  peoples  to  dispose  of 
themselves,  disguised  annexations  of  territory,  a  return 
to  the  old  system  of  alliances  and  imperialisms,  the  im- 
possibility of  general  disarmament,  the  lack  of  an  inter- 
national financial  and  economic  organization,  and  the 
continuation  of  economic  war. 

The  final  German  counter-proposals  and  the  Allied 
reply  make  clear  the  issues,  and  deserve  to  be  studied  in 
connection  with  the  treaty  of  peace  itself.  The  reply 
of  the  Allies  especially  is  an  able  and  clarifying  docu- 
ment, which  does  what  the  treaty  could  not  well  do  — 
present  specific  arguments  to  clear  up  each  point  in  the 
treaty  that  the  Germans  have  contested.  The  German 
counter-proposals   may  be   reviewed   here   but  briefly. 


THE  rOUKTEE:Nr  POINTS  337 

Germany  declared  that  the  treaty  violates  the  Fourteen 
Points.  Germany  seeks  to  enter  the  League  of  Nations 
on  an  equal  footing  with  the  Allies  as  soon  as  peace  is 
signed.  Germany  agrees  to  the  basic  idea  of  the  naval, 
military,  and  air  regulations  and  the  abolition  of  com- 
pulsory military  service,  provided  that  this  is  the  be- 
ginning of  a  general  reduction  of  armaments  and  the 
abolition  of  compulsory  military  service  everywhere. 
Germany  will  dismantle  her  fortresses  in  the  west,  but 
declares  this  may  be  done  only  under  the  supervision 
of  the  league.  The  cession  of  upper  Silesia  and  the 
Saar  district  "  cannot  be  demanded  at  all,"  and  in 
case  Germany  is  to  acquiesce  in  the  cession  of  any  ter- 
ritory, a  plebiscite  must  precede  it.  The  Saar  scheme 
must  be  reconsidered,  and  a  supply  of  coal  to  Erance 
is  offered  in  exchange.  Malmedy,  Eupen,  and  Mores- 
net  are  described  as  purely  German  districts.  Germany 
asks  a  plebiscite  for  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  Germany 
cannot  pledge  herself  to  oppose  the  desire  of  Austria 
to  unite  with  her.  Germany  objects  to  the  cession  of 
large  districts  to  Poland  on  the  ground  that  they  are 
not  indisputably  Polish,  citing  the  province  of  Posen 
as  an  example.  Germany  wishes  to  keep  a  "  bridge  " 
of  purely  German  territory  to  East  Prussia.  Germany 
is  ready  to  make  Dantzic,  Memel,  and  Konigsberg  ^^  free 
ports,"  in  order  to  give  Poland  access  to  the  sea,  but 
cannot  cede  Dantzic,  which  must  remain  within  the 
German  Empire.  Germany  agrees  to  a  plebiscite  in 
these  districts,  but  suggests  a  different  system  of  voting. 
She  objects  to  the  loss  of  her  colonies  and  suggests  an 
impartial   hearing  before   a   special   committee.     Ger- 


338  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

many  agrees  to  the  renunciation  of  all  rights  in  Shan- 
tung. She  agrees  to  pay  as  reparation  $25,000,000,000, 
of  which  amount  $5,000,000,000  is  to  be  paid  before 
May  1,  1926.  She  will  pay  the  damage  to  civil  popu- 
lations in  the  occupied  parts  of  Belgium  and  Prance. 
She  refuses  to  pay  reparation  for  damages  in  the  occu- 
pied areas  in  Italy,  Montenegro,  Serbia,  Rumania,  and 
Poland.  Germany  opposes  the  wide  powers  of  the 
reparations  commission,  and  suggests  a  German  com- 
mission to  cooperate  with  the  Allied  body.  Germany, 
"  if  her  situation  permits,"  will  export  to  Prance  coal 
equal  to  the  loss  in  production  caused  by  the  destruction 
of  the  Prench  mines,  the  maximum  to  be  20,000,000 
tons  for  the  first  five  years,  and  5,000,000  tons  an- 
nually thereafter.  Germany  also  protests  against  con- 
trol of  German  river  systems  by  international  commis- 
sions, and  makes  suggestions  for  other  methods.  She 
does  not  recognize  the  justification  for  the  trial  of  the 
kaiser  and  the  competence  of  the  proposed  tribunal. 
She  asks  that  her  territory  be  evacuated  by  the  Allies 
within  six  months  of  the  signing  of  peace.  With  regard 
to  labor  it  is  set  forth  that  German  workers  can  agree 
only  to  a  peace  which  embodies  the  immediate  aims  of 
the  international  labor  movement,  and  Germany  ^'  once 
more  proposes  the  summoning  of  a  conference  of  labor 
organizations  to  discuss  the  Allies'  proposals,  the  Ger- 
man counter-proposals,  and  the  Bern  resolutions  of  Peb- 
ruary,  the  result  to  be  embodied  in  the  treaty  of  peace, 
and  to  attain  thereby  the  force  of  international  law." 

The  reply  of  the  Peace  Conference  was  handed  to 
the  Germans  on  June  16.     It  was  to  be  the  final  nego- 


THE  FOUETEEE"  POINTS  339 

tiation  with  the  Germans.  The  German  nation  had 
five  days  in  which  to  reply  whether  or  not  it  would  sign 
the  treaty  of  peace,  a  plain  "  Yes  "  or  ^^  E'o.''  As  the 
time  was  complained  of  as  too  short,  forty-eight  hours 
were  added.  This  caused  the  time  limit  to  expire  on 
Monday,  June  23.  If  Germany  did  not  sign  at  that 
time,  the  Allied  troops  would  move  into  Germany  and 
prepare  to  carry  out  the  treaty  by  force  of  arms. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  exhaustive  nature  of  the 
reply.  As  this  is  over  20,000  words  long,  or  about  one 
fourth  the  size  of  the  treaty,  it  can  be  quoted  here  only 
briefly.  Its  most  important  statement  was  probably 
the  declaration  that  the  treaty  was  based  fairly  and 
squarely  upon  the  Fourteen  Points,  together  with  the 
reservations  of  ^N'ovember  5,  1918,  and  the  other  prin- 
ciples of  President  Wilson  of  September  27,  1918. 
The  whole  Allied  case  was  put  succinctly  before  the 
German  delegates,  and  incidentally  before  the  German 
nation,  so  that  any  German  student  of  the  war  who 
had  not  been  confronted  by  the  Allied  side  of  the  con- 
flict here  found  the  definite  charges  against  the  Ger- 
man Imperial  Government  on  which  the  Allied  and 
Associated  powers  fought  the  war.  The  reply  cited 
Germany's  armaments,  her  system  of  espionage  in  for- 
eign and  friendly  lands,  her  attempts  to  breed  trouble 
in  neighboring  countries,  her  encouragement  of  a  sub- 
servient ally  to  make  war  on  Serbia,  her  rejection  of 
every  attempt  at  conciliation  and  conference,  the  viola- 
tion of  Belgium's  neutrality,  the  policy  of  frightfulness, 
the  introduction  of  poisonous  gases,  the  bombarding  of 
cities  without  a  military  object,  the  destruction  of  life 


340  THE  ADVEI^TURES  OF 

and  property  by  submarines,  the  forcing  of  populations 
into  slavery,  and  the  wanton  destruction  of  mines  and 
industries  to  damage  a  competitor.  As  a  result,  says 
the  reply,  7,000,000  men  have  been  killed  and  2,000,000 
bear  the  scars  of  their  wounds,  and  an  indebtedness  of 
$150,000,000,000  has  been  settled  on  the  nations.  The 
responsibility  of  the  people  of  Germany  is  not  shed  with 
the  revolution.  "  They  cannot  now  pretend,  having 
changed  their  rulers  after  the  war  was  lost,  that  it  is 
justice  that  they  should  escape  the  consequences  of  their 
deeds." 

The  conference  points  out  that  it  does  not  wish  to 
exclude  Germany  from  the  League  of  ISTations,  but  that 
w^hen  a  state  has  given  proofs  of  its  stability  and  its 
intention  to  observe  its  international  engagements,  its 
candidacy  will  be  supported.  Germany's  case  demands 
a  definite  test,  but  the  Allied  governments  see  no  rea- 
son why  Germany  should  not  become  a  member  of  the 
league  in  the  near  future.  On  the  subject  of  Alsace 
and  Lorraine  the  conference  does  not  see  the  need  of  a 
plebiscite,  for  Germany  has  agreed  to  the  evacuation 
of  these  provinces  in  signing  the  armistice,  and  the  in- 
habitants have  not  asked  for  a  plebiscite.  Erance  shall 
not  pay  for  German  state  property  there  or  take  over 
that  part  of  the  German  debt  properly  allotted  to  these 
provinces,  for  the  reason  that  Germany  in  1871  refused 
to  pay  for  the  French  state  property  or  to  take  over  the 
French  debt.  The  subject  of  Polish  boundaries  is  gone 
into  in  great  detail.  The  conference  sets  forth  that 
Dantzic  was  annexed  to  Prussia  against  the  will  of  the 
inhabitants.     The   population    is   predominantly   Ger- 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  341 

man,  and  for  this  reason  is  not  made  a  part  of  the  Polish 
state.  When  Dantzic  was  a  Hansa  city  it  lay  outside 
German  political  boundaries  and  "  in  union  with  Po- 
land enjoyed  a  large  measure  of  local  independence  and 
great  commercial  prosperity."  Poland  shall  not  be 
compelled  to  have  the  way  of  communication  between  it 
and  the  port  of  Dantzic  in  foreign  control.  In  Helgo- 
land the  fishing  harbor  will  not  be  disturbed ;  only  the 
naval  harbor  will  be  destroyed,  nor  will  the  Allies  de- 
stroy works  that  protect  the  island  against  sea  erosion. 
A  plebiscite  is  offered  for  Upper  Silesia.  The  plebis- 
cite in  Schleswig  is  to  be  held  at  the  request  of  the 
Danish  Government,  and  also  at  this  Government's  re- 
quest a  modification  has  been  made  in  the  extent  of  the 
territory  where  the  plebiscite  is  to  be  held.  The  Ger- 
man claims  affecting  the  colonies  are  rejected.  The 
conference  grants  more  moderate  terms  affecting  the 
reduction  of  the  army.  The  maximum  size  is  to  be 
200,000  men  at  the  end  of  three  months;  every  three 
months  thereafter  the  Allied  military  experts  will  de- 
termine the  strength  of  the  German  x\rmy  for  the  next 
period,  in  order  to  reduce  the  army  to  the  100,000  called 
for  by  the  end  of  March,  1920.  The  conference  wel- 
comes the  German  proposal  to  create  a  German  commis- 
sion of  reparation  to  cooperate  with  the  allied  commis- 
sion. Germany  is  invited  to  submit  special  reparation 
proposals  within  four  months,  and  the  Allies  will  reply 
within  two  months  thereafter. 

The  conviction  of  the  Allied  and  Associated  powers 
that  Germany  forced  the  war  on  Europe  in  order  to 
solve  the  European  question  is  emphasized.     The  whole 


342  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

German  case  is  reviewed  and  disposed  of.  With  re- 
gard to  penalties^  the  conference  repeats  that  it  consid- 
ers the  war  as  a  deliberate  crime,  and  that  punishment 
of  those  responsible  "  for  the  crimes  and  inhuman  acts 
committed  in  connection  with  a  war  of  aggression  is 
inseparable  from  the  establishment  of  that  reign  of  law 
among  nations  which  it  was  the  agreed  object  of  the 
peace  to  set  up."  The  tribunal  will  represent  the  de- 
liberate judgment  of  the  greater  part  of  the  civilized 
world.  The  powers  are  ready  to  stand  by  the  verdict 
of  history  as  to  the  impartiality  and  justice  with  which 
the  accused  will  be  tried.  ^'  The  arraignment  framed 
against  the  kaiser  has  not  a  juridical  character  as  re- 
gards its  substance,  but  only  in  its  form.  The  ex- 
emperor  is  arraigned  as  a  matter  of  high  international 
policy  as  the  minimum  of  what  is  demanded  for  a  su- 
preme offence  against  international  morality,  the  sanc- 
tity of  treaties  and  the  essential  rules  of  justice.  The 
allied  and  associated  powers  have  desired  that  judicial 
forms,  a  judicial  procedure,  and  a  regularly  constituted 
tribunal  should  be  set  up  in  order  to  assure  to  the  ac- 
cused full  rights  and  liberties  in  regard  to  his  defense, 
and  in  order  that  the  judgment  should  be  of  the  most 
solemn  judicial  character." 

Most  pertinent  is  the  comment  of  the  conference  on 
the  subject  of  guaranties.     It  reads: 

The  German  delegation  observe  in  their  remarks  on  the  condi- 
tions of  peace:  "Only  a  return  to  the  immutable  principles  of 
morality  and  civilization,  to  a  belief  in  the  sanctity  of  treaties  and 
engagements  would  render  it  possible  for  mankind  to  continue  to 
exist." 

After  four  and  a  half  years  of  war  which  was  caused  by  the 


THE  rOUETEE:^"  POINTS  343 

repudiation  of  these  principles  by  Germany,  the  allied  and  associ- 
ated powers  can  only  repeat  the  words  pronounced  by  President 
Wilson  on  September  27,  1918:  "The  reason  why  peace  must  be 
guaranteed  is  that  there  will  be  parties  to  the  peace  whose  prom- 
ises have  proved  untrustworthy." 

Count  von  Brockdorff-Rantzau  let  it  be  known  that 
he  would  never  sign  the  treaty  of  peace.  The  other 
plenipotentiaries  seemed  to  be  of  the  same  mind.  The 
count  is  on  record  as  saying : 

A  peace  treaty  such  as  was  handed  to  me  on  May  7  I  shall  never 
sign.  Small  concessions  I  do  not  look  upon  as  essential  changes. 
We  will  sign  neither  our  own  death  sentence  nor  a  deprivation  of 
our  rights  or  our  honor.  Our  national  self-esteem  will  never  per- 
mit us  to  abandon  the  German  nation  and  its  country  for  the  sake 
of  the  material  advantages  of  our  enemies.  On  that  point  we  are 
all  agreed,  both  the  delegation  in  Versailles  and  the  government 
in  Berlin.  Nobody  will  retreat.  What  will  happen  if  our  enemies 
do  not  show  any  comprehension  of  our  attitude  I  do  not  know. 
But  one  thing  is  certain:  the  decision  will  be  taken  by  the  delega- 
tion and  the  government  unanimously,  and  the  German  nation  will 
stand  behind  them. 

As  for  the  great  powers,  they  were  confident  that 
Germany  would  sign.  Mr.  Lloyd  George  expressed  the 
determination  of  the  Allied  and  Associated  representa- 
tives in  an  address  delivered  before  the  38th  British  Di- 
vision near  Amiens^  in  which  he  said : 

These  terms  are  written  in  the  blood  of  fallen  heroes.  The 
Germans  have  been  reckoning  on  this  job  for  years,  even  working 
out  the  number  of  spikes  per  yard  of  barbed  wire.  We  never 
dreamt  of  being  in  a  position  like  this.  In  order  to  make  it  impos- 
sible to  occur  again  we  have  had  to  make  these  terms  severe.  We 
must  carry  out  the  edict  of  Providence  and  see  that  the  people 
who  inflicted  this  shall  never  be  in  a  position  to  do  so  again.  The 
Germans  say  they  will  not  sign.  Their  newspapers  say  they  will 
not  sign.  The  politicians  say  the  same  and  we  know  that  all  poli- 
ticians speak  the  truth.  We  say :  "  Gentlemen,  you  must  sign. 
If  you  don't  do  so  in  Versailles,  you  shall  do  so  in  Berlin." 


^ 


344  THE  FOUKTEEIT  POIliTTS 

And  Germany  agreed  to  sign,  agreed  after  the  mili- 
tary party  had  exhausted  every  effort  to  prevent  the 
signature  of  a  treaty  that  threatened  the  liberty  of  the 
leaders  of  the  former  German  Government,  its  army, 
and  navy;  after  they  had  intimidated  the  national  as- 
sembly and  brought  about  a  cabinet  crisis;  after  the 
Junker  elements  had  threatened  reprisals;  after  the 
principal  members  of  the  delegation  at  Versailles  had 
withdrawn  and  the  time  limit  was  about  to  expire  — 
Germany,  through  her  national  assembly,  agreed  to  sign 
and  to  ratify  the  terms  of  peace.  And  as  signatories 
she  finally  prevailed  upon  two  men  of  more  or  less 
obscure  names,  Hermann  Miiller  and  Johann  Bell,  min- 
isters in  the  cabinet,  to  perform  the  final  act  of  submis- 
sion to  the  will  of  the  victorious  powers. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

The  story  of  the  twenty-eighth  of  June,  and  how  Germany  found 
peace  at  the  end  of  a  long,  long  road  in  Versailles. 

MuLLEE  and  Bell,  the  two  German  plenipotentiaries, 
arrived  late  on  the  evening  of  June  27.  Their  train 
had  been  seriously  delayed  in  passing  through  the  Ger- 
man occupied  territory,  and  it  was  not  until  11 :20 
o'clock  that  it  pulled  into  the  station  at  Saint  Cyr, 
where  Colonel  Henry,  chief  of  the  French  military 
mission,  and  his  staff  were  awaiting  them.  Present 
were  also  two  members  of  the  German  delegation,  Ha- 
niel  and  Dunker.  It  must  have  been  a  long  and  tire- 
some journey  for  the  two  plenipotentiaries  who  had 
come  to  perform  the  final  act  in  Germany's  submission, 
and  who  in  their  journey  from  Berlin  had  passed  from 
the  fertile,  well-cared-for  fields  of  Germany  to  the  bleak, 
devastated  regions  of  Prance,  laid  waste  as  a  result  of 
Germany's  disastrous  aggression. 

Haniel  presented  the  two  delegates  to  Colonel  Henry, 
and  the  men  saluted  one  another  without  speaking. 
Colonel  Henry  then  said  in  Prench: 

'^  Messieurs,  will  you  follow  me  ?  " 

"  Willingly,"  replied  the  Germans.     They  entered  an 

automobile  with  Colonel  Henry,   and  were  driven  to 

Versailles  and  the  Hotel  des  Reservoirs.     In  addition 

to  the  plenipotentiaries  there  were  fourteen  men  in  the 

345 


346  THE  ADVEINTTUEES  OF 

German  party,  including  Surrier,  counselor  of  state, 
and  Kreis,  secretary  of  the  embassy,  as  well  as  secre- 
taries and  interpreters. 

Versailles  was  sleeping  when  the  Germans  arrived. 
A  few  German  correspondents  and  members  of  the  dele- 
gation awaited  the  two  men,  but  scarcely  any  curious 
faces  were  to  be  seen.  No  one  would  have  guessed  that 
on  the  morrow  Versailles  would  be  the  scene  of  one  of 
the  great  events  in  the  history  of  France;  would  know 
a  day  more  glorious  than  any  in  its  regal  and  revolu- 
tionary history  unless  it  be  the  day  of  the  oath  in  the 
tennis-court,  the  scene  of  which  lay  only  a  few  minutes' 
walk  from  the  spot  where  the  Germans  had  made  their 
headquarters. 

A  glorious  day  it  was  to  be,  this  great  day  of  Ver- 
sailles, but  a  day  in  which  the  joy  of  victory  was  to 
be  tempered  by  the  austerity  and  dignity  which  the 
memory  of  the  brave  dead  who  had  died  in  the  war 
demanded.  At  least  that  was  the  thought  in  the  mind 
of  the  mayor  of  Versailles,  M.  Henri  Simon,  when  he 
addressed  his  proclamation  to  the  inhabitants  of  this 
historic  town  —  a  proclamation  the  Germans  might  have 
read  on  the  walls  had  they  been  at  liberty  to  walk  about 
that  evening.  Surely  it  should  have  a  place  in  this 
story  of  Versailles: 

The  great  day  of  Versailles  has  come.  The  victorious  peace 
will  be  signed  in  the  Hall  of  Mirrors  Saturday,  June  2S.  The 
government  wishes  the  ceremony  to  have  the  character  of  austerity 
that  goes  with  the  memory  of  the  grief  and  sufferings  of  the  patrie. 
Nevertheless,  public  buildings  will  be  decorated  and  illuminated. 
The  inhabitants  certainly  will  follow  this  example. 

All  measures  to  preserve  order  have  been  taken  by  the  govern- 


THE  rOUETEEN  POINTS  347 

ment;  the  public  is  asked  to  conform  to  them  for  the  successful 
outcome  of  the  ceremony. 

Inhabitants  and  visitors  should  observe  the  calm  and  the  dignity 
which  goes  with  this  great  event,  and  from  which  the  city  of  Ver- 
sailles has  not  departed  in  five  years,  for  the  incidents  of  June  16 
can  not  be  blamed  on  the  local  population. 

The  day  of  June  28  will  come  about  as  should  such  a  great  day 
in  the  history  of  the  world. 

Upon  their  arrival  the  delegates,  Miiller  and  Bell, 
gave  their  credentials  to  Colonel  Henry,  who  trans- 
mitted them  to  M.  Jules  Cambon,  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee on  verification.  Of  the  two  men  an  oflScial  note 
published  in  Berlin  said : 

The  ministers  of  the  Reich,  Hermann  Miiller  and  Dr.  Bell,  upon 
the  unanimous  request  of  the  government,  have  decided  to  sign  the 
treaty  of  peace  as  plenipotentiaries  at  Versailles.  Under  the  ter- 
rible impression  of  popular  misery  and  the  pressing  need  to  obtain 
peace  at  last,  they  believe  that  nothing  should  stop  them  from 
making  this  last  personal  sacrifice. 

When  June  28  came,  Versailles  recalled  other  events 
that  had  fallen  on  this  day.  It  was  the  fifth  anniver- 
sary of  the  assassination  of  the  Austrian  archduke  at 
Serajevo.  A  Paris  newspaper  remembered  that  on 
June  28,  1870,  the  candidacy  of  Prince  Leopold  of 
Hohenzollern  had  entered  its  final  phase,  for  on  that 
day  the  Spanish  deputy  Salazar  arrived  at  Madrid  with 
a  letter  from  the  prince  accepting  the  Spanish  crown 
with  the  secret  approval  of  William  of  Prussia.  Eight 
days  later  the  news  became  public.  "  The  bomb  has 
exploded,"  wrote  William  I.  All  France  was  in  a  tur- 
moil of  excitement.  On  July  12  the  crisis  appeared 
to  be  past.  On  July  13  Bismarck  made  public  at  Ems 
the  mutilated  despatch,  and  war  became  certain. 


348  THE  ADVEITTUEES  OF 

But  I  doubt  whether  Serajevo  or  Ems  were  in  the 
minds  of  the  crowd  at  Versailles  when  the  great  daj 
came.  It  was  January  18,  1871,  and  the  proclamation 
of  the  German  Empire  that  Versailles  thought  of  oftener 
than  anything  else  on  this  historic  day.  The  labors 
of  the  Peace  Conference  had  attracted  Paris  but  super- 
ficially. The  crowds  had  become  familiar  with  the 
sight  of  presidents  and  kings  and  queens.  Plenary  ses- 
sions created  hardly  a  ripple  of  interest.  But  the  sign- 
ing of  the  peace,  the  signing  by  Germany  of  the  peace 
dictated  by  France,  that  is  what  awakened  the  crowd 
of  Paris  to  a  realization  of  the  greatness  of  the  day. 

By  noon  a  stream  of  automobiles  coming  from  all 
directions  centered  on  the  road  to  Versailles  over  which 
once  rolled  the  state  carriages  of  Louis  XIV.  To  ex- 
pedite matters,  the  authorities  had  "  canalized  "  traffic. 
Official  cars  followed  the  ancient  route  via  Suresnes, 
Villa  d'Avray,  and  Picardie.  At  the  corner  of  the 
Avenue  de  Picardie  and  the  Boulevard  de  la  Peine  all 
motor-cars  bearing  a  tricolor  cockade,  or  a  yellow-and- 
green  cockade,  continued  down  the  avenue,  whereas 
others  were  directed  down  the  boulevard.  At  the  corner 
of  the  Avenue  de  St.-Cloud  and  of  the  Rue  St.-Pierre 
the  cars  carrying  the  tricolor  were  directed  to  proceed 
along  the  Rue  St.-Pierre  to  the  Avenue  de  Paris  and  the 
palace.  The  others  were  directed  to  the  Rue  des  Reser- 
voirs. A  double  line  of  troops  was  drawn  up  in  the 
streets  leading  to  the  palace.  General  Brecard,  com- 
mander of  the  6th  Division  of  Cavalry,  took  position 
with  his  staff  before  the  beautiful  grill  of  wrought  iron 
before  the  palace  grounds  at  the  Place  d'Armes.     Five 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  349 

wide  avenues  lead  to  this  place;  all  were  lined  with  the 
troops  in  horizon  blue,  and  by  noon  the  avenues,  the 
Place  d'Armes,  and  the  palace  courtyard  were  a  maze  of 
troops  in  colorful  uniforms,  a  touch  of  heightened  color 
being  added  by  the  cavalry  within  the  courtyard,  who 
carried  fluttering  pennons  of  red  and  white,  while  far- 
ther in  the  foreground  were  massed  the  Garde  Repub- 
licaine,  brilliant  in  white  breeches,  red  shakos,  shining, 
burnished  helmets,  and  white  cross-belts.  Banners, 
flags,  and  bunting  flew  gaily  from  the  windows,  roofs, 
and  balconies  on  the  hither  side  of  the  iron  grills,  but 
beyond  it  lay  the  palace  buildings  in  somber  stateliness, 
displaying  onlv  one  bit  of  decoration,  the  tricolor  of 
France  suspended  above  the  little  balcony  at  the  head 
of  the  cour  d'honneu7%  on  which  Louis  XVI,  Marie  An- 
toinette, and  the  Dauphin  appeared  on  October  6,  1789, 
the  day  when  the  insatiate  mob  of  Paris  camped  in  the 
marble  court,  only  a  short  time  before  the  Bourbons  left 
the  palace  forever.  For  the  government  had  decreed 
that  this  flag  was  to  be  the  only  decoration  displayed 
on  the  palace  itself,  in  order  that  it  might  be  in  keeping 
with  ''  le  calme  et  la  dignite  "  of  the  occasion. 

Few  of  the  great  men  of  the  conference  were  recog- 
nized by  the  crowd  as  they  rolled  down  the  Avenue  de 
Paris  in  their  motor-cars  between  rows  of  steel-helmeted 
Poilus  in  horizon  blue.  Most  of  them,  however^  had 
closed  cars  and  limousines,  and  they  passed  so  quickly 
that  the  crowd  could  give  them  no  greeting.  But  there 
was  no  mistaking  M.  Clemenceau,  and  the  crowd  bel- 
lowed out  a  shout  that  must  have  been  a  welcome  sound 
even  to  one  so  thoroughly  accustomed  to  acclamations. 


350  THE  ADVEI^TURES  OF 

At  1 :45  o'clock  the  first  automobile  entered  the  forecourt 
and  drove  up  to  the  entrance  leading  to  the  marble  stair- 
case. A  regular  line  of  cars  followed.  General  Guil- 
laumat  was  one  of  the  first  to  arrive.  There  followed 
General  Pershing,  Admiral  Lebon,  Secretary  Lansing, 
the  Maharajah  of  Bikaner,  the  Marquis  Saionyi  and 
Baron  Makino,  General  Dubail,  Mile.  Deroulede,  sister 
of  Paul  Deroulede,  General  Maistre,  M.  Painleve,  Louis 
Loucheur,  and  Athos  Romanes.  M.  Clemenceau  came 
with  General  Mordacq.  A  little  later  came  General 
Maunourj,  who  had  been  blinded  in  the  war,  and  who 
was  guided  by  General  Alby,  chief  of  the  general  staff. 
Other  notable  guests  included  the  Admiral  Ronarch, 
M.  Antoine  Dubost,  with  the  medal  of  1870  on  his 
breast ;  M.  Alexandre  Millerand,  high  commissioner  for 
Alsace  and  Lorraine;  Paul  Deschanel  and  Mme.  Des- 
chanel;  M.  Leygues,  minister  of  marine;  Admiral 
Beatty  and  Ignace  Paderewski.  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
came  at  2 :45  o'clock,  and  immediately  after  him  came 
President  and  Mrs.  Wilson.  Both  the  prime  minister 
and  the  President  were  vociferously  applauded  by  the 
attendants  and  by-standers  in  the  marble  court  as  they 
left  their  motor-cars. 

Outside  the  walls  of  the  palace  the  military  predomi- 
nated ;  the  brilliant  uniforms  and  the  long  lines  of  the 
soldiers  gave  a  feeling  of  precision  to  the  event.  But 
once  inside  the  palace  this  feeling  disappeared,  and 
there  was  general  relaxation,  with  an  air  of  easy  fa- 
miliarity. It  was  hard  to  conceive  that  this  feeling 
could  have  existed  in  the  days  of  the  august  Bourbon 
court;  they  had  their  play  days,  too,  but  austerity  and 


THE  EOUETEEN  POIIvrTS  351 

formal  conduct  were  the  rule  at  the  royal  ceremonies, 
such  as  those  of  which  traditions  have  come  down  to 
us.  I^ow,  however,  upon  entering  the  palace,  delegates 
and  invited  guests  found  ready  for  them  post-cards 
commemorating  the  ceremony,  which  could  be  mailed 
by  means  of  a  special  peace-conference  stamp,  and  there 
were  few  who  did  not  avail  themselves  of  the  oppor- 
tunity. 

The  greatest  attention  had  been  given  to  the  staging 
of  the  culminating  event  in  the  Hall  of  Mirrors.  It  is 
a  long  and  narrow  room,  more  like  a  corridor  than  a 
salon.  The  delegates  ascended  the  marble  staircase  and 
passed  through  what  at  one  time  were  the  apartments  of 
Marie  Antoinette  to  the  Salon  de  la  Paix,  the  Hall  of 
Peace,  whence  they  entered  the  Hall  of  Mirrors.  At 
this  end  of  the  hall  were  the  chairs  for  the  invited 
guests.  Then  came  tables  for  secretaries  of  certain 
delegations.  Beyond  that  stood  the  long  horseshoe  table 
that  ran  along  the  mirrored  side  of  the  hall.  At  the 
middle  of  the  table,  facing  the  high  embrasured  win- 
dows, was  the  place  for  M.  Clemenceau,  president  of 
the  conference.  To  his  left,  in  the  direction  of  the 
Hall  of  Peace,  were  reserved  places  for  the  delegates 
of  Great  Britain,  the  British  dominions,  and  Japan. 
Here  the  angle  in  the  table  was  reached,  and  then  came 
the  places  reserved  for  Germany.  There  followed  the 
seats  of  Uruguay,  Peru,  Panama,  l^icaragua,  Liberia, 
Honduras,  Brazil,  Haiti,  Guatemala,  Bolivia,  and 
Equador.  At  the  right  hand  of  the  President  sat  the 
commissioners  from  the  United  States.  Then  came 
France,  Italy  and  Belgium.     Beyond  the  turn  of  the 


352  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

table  came  the  places  of  Greece,  Poland,  China,  Cuba, 
Rumania,  IJedjaz,  Siam,  Serbia,  and  Czecho-Slovakia. 
Behind  this  table  were  tables  for  secretaries,  and  be- 
hind them,  extending  toward  the  Hall  of  War,  came 
seats  for  the  representatives  of  the  press  of  the  world. 
Inside  the  horseshoe  table  were  smaller  tables  for  secre- 
taries, and  a  small  one  before  the  chairman's  place  was 
reserv^ed  for  the  interpreter.  In  the  middle  stood  the 
table  on  which  lay  the  treaty  of  peace  and  three  other 
documents  to  be  signed  simultaneously  with  it ;  the 
protocol,  to  be  signed  also  by  all  the  delegates;  the 
Rhine  province  agreement,  to  be  signed  by  the  five  great 
powers  and  Germany;  and  the  Polish  treaty,  to  be 
signed  by  the  five  great  powers,  Poland,  and  Germany. 

On  the  day  before  the  ceremony  Herr  von  Haniel 
sent  word  to  the  Peace  Conference  that  the  German  dele- 
gates had  received  no  formal  assurance  that  the  docu- 
ment they  were  to  sign  in  the  Hall  of  Mirrors  was  iden- 
tical with  the  treaty  handed  them  on  June  19.  M. 
Clemenceau  immediately  drafted  a  letter  assuring  them 
formally  that  the  document  was  identical  in  all  its  parts, 
and  this  was  carried  to  the  Germans  by  M.  Dutasta, 
general  secretary  of  the  conference. 

Singularly,  the  places  reserved  for  the  delegation  from 
China  were  not  to  be  occupied.  This  was  the  one  rift 
in  the  lute,  for  the  Chinese  commissioners,  in  protest 
against  the  clauses  of  the  treaty  agreeing  to  the  transfer 
of  the  German  leaseholds  to  Japan,  decided  not  to  sign 
the  treaty.  A  month  before  the  Chinese  plenipoten- 
tiaries had  made  a  formal  request  of  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence that  the  questions  involved  in  the  Shan-tung  matter 


THE  FOUKTEE:^  points  353 

be  not  included  in  the  treaty,  but  be  postponed  for  fu- 
ture consideration.  This  request  was  denied.  On  the 
morning  of  June  28  M.  Lou  Tseng  Tsiang,  president 
of  the  Chinese  delegation,  asked  that  China  be  permitted 
to  sign  with  the  explanatory  note,  "  Under  the  reserva- 
tion made  at  the  plenary  session  of  May  6,  1919,  and 
relative  to  the  question  of  Shan-tung  (Articles  156,  157, 
and  158).''  He  pointed  out  that  the  Swedish  pleni- 
potentiary signed  the  act  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna 
with  a  reservation.  The  request  was  not  acceded  to  by 
the  conference,  and  when  the  time  for  signature  came, 
the  Chinese  did  not  respond.  The  attitude  of  the 
Chinese  delegation  in  this  matter  was  consistent  with 
its  point  of  view  that  Japan  should  have  been  asked 
by  the  Peace  Conference  to  vacate  Shan-tung  and  turn 
all  German  property  over  to  China. 

There  was  to  be  only  one  official  treaty  of  peace, 
printed  on  Japanese  vellum,  with  a  large  margin  and 
held  together  by  red  tape.  This  copy  was  to  be 
placed  in  the  archives  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs of  France,  and  a  copy  given  to  all  the  governments 
concerned  in  its  signing.  In  order  to  expedite  the  sign- 
ing, which  at  the  best  speed  possible  would  take  nearly 
an  hour,  the  seals  of  the  commissioners,  which  were  con- 
sidered necessary,  had  been  placed  on  the  document 
before  the  signing.  These  were  the  personal  seals  of 
the  signatories,  for  these  men  signed  in  person  and  not 
as  officials  of  their  governments.  For  this  reason  it 
was  not  considered  proper  for  President  Wilson  to  use 
the  seal  that  had  been  selected  for  him,  one  bearing  the 
Apierican  eagle  and  the  words,  "  The  President  of  the 


354  THE  ADVENTUEES  OF 

United  States  of  America."  President  Wilson  there- 
upon substituted  a  seal  from  a  ring  given  him  at  the 
time  of  his  marriage  by  the  State  of  California,  which 
bore  his  name  in  stenographic  characters.  Some  of 
the  commissioners  did  not  possess  personal  seals,  but 
obtained  them  before  they  were  needed. 

When  the  time  came  for  opening  the  historic  session, 
the  long  hall  was  crowded  with  delegates,  visitors,  and 
newspaper  representatives.  The  commissioners  had  put 
in  almost  an  hour  passing  from  table  to  table  to  seek 
autographs  of  men  as  notable  as  themselves.  The  guests 
bobbed  up  and  down  in  their  chairs,  trying  to  observe 
the  great  men  of  the  conference.  A  score  of  Gardes 
Municipaux  circulated  among  the  crowd  for  a  very  good 
reason:  they  were  instructed  to  keep  a  watch  on  the 
pens  and  ink-wells  in  the  hall,  and  to  prevent  these 
articles  being  pilfered  by  souvenir-hunters. 

At  about  2:30  o'clock  M.  Clemenceau  entered  the 
room  and  looked  about  him  to  see  that  all  arrangements 
were  in  perfect  order.  He  observed  a  group  of 
wounded,  with  their  medals  of  valor  on  their  breasts, 
in  the  embrasure  of  a  window,  and,  walking  up  to  them, 
engaged  them  in  conversation.  At  2 :45  o'clock  he 
moved  up  to  the  middle  table  and  took  the  seat  of  the 
presiding  officer.  It  was  a  singular  fact  that  he  sat 
almost  immediately  under  the  ceiling  decoration  that 
bears  the  legend  ''  Le  roi  gouveme  par  lui-meme/*  in 
other  words,  almost  on  the  exact  spot  where  William  I 
of  Prussia  stood  when  he  was  proclaimed  German  Em- 
peror in  1871.  President  Wilson  entered  almost  im- 
mediately after  M.  Clemenceau  and  was  saluted  with 


THE  FOUETEEI^  POINTS  355 

discreet  applause.  The  German  delegation  entered  by 
way  of  the  Hall  of  Peace  and  slipped  almost  unnoticed 
into  its  seats  at  this  end  of  the  hall.  It  was  led  by 
Herr  Miiller,  a  tall  man  with  a  scrubby  little  mustache, 
wearing  black,  with  a  short  black  tie  over  his  white 
shirt  front.  The  Germans  bowed  and  seated  them- 
selves. 

At  3  :15  o'clock  M.  Clemenceau  rose  and  announced 
briefly  that  the  session  was  opened  — "  La  seance  est 
ouverte/'     He  then  spoke  briefly  in  Erench  as  follows : 

An  agreement  has  been  reached  upon  the  conditions  of  the  treaty 
of  peace  between  the  allied  and  associated  powers  and  the  German 
empire. 

The  text  has  been  verified;  the  president  of  the  conference  has 
certified  in  writing  that  the  text  about  to  be  signed  conforms  to 
the  text  of  the  200  copies  which  have  been  sent  to  Messieurs  the 
German  delegates. 

The  signatures  about  to  be  given  constitute  an  irrevocable  en- 
gagement to  carry  out  loyally  and  faithfully  in  their  entirety  all 
the  conditions  that  have  been  decided  upon. 

I  therefore  have  the  honor  of  asking  Messieurs  the  German 
plenipotentiaries  to  approach  to  affix  their  signatures  to  the  treaty 
before  me. 

M.  Clemenceau  ceased  and  sat  down,  and  Herr 
Miiller  rose  as  if  to  proceed  to  the  table.  He  was  in- 
terrupted, however,  by  Lieutenant  Mantoux,  official 
interpreter  of  the  conference,  who  began  to  translate 
M.  Clemenceau's  words  into  German.  In  his  first  sen- 
tence, when  Lieutenant  Mantoux  reached  the  words 
"  the  German  empire,"  or,  as  M.  Clemenceau  had  said 
in  Erench:  ''  V empire  allemand/'  he  translated  it  ''  the 
German  republic."  M.  Clemenceau  promptly  whis- 
pered, "  Say  German  Reich/'  this  being  the  term  con- 
sistently used  by  the  Germans. 


356  THE  ADVENTUKES  OF 

M.  Dutasta  then  led  the  way  for  five  Germans  —  two 
plenipotentiaries  and  three  secretaries  —  and  they 
passed  to  the  table,  where  two  of  them  signed  their 
names.  Miiller  came  first,  and  then  Bell,  virtually 
unknown  men,  performing  the  final  act  of  abasement 
and  submission  for  the  German  people  —  an  act  to 
which  they  had  been  condemned  by  the  arrogance  and 
pride  of  Prussian  Junkers,  German  militarists,  im- 
perialists, and  industrial  barons,  not  one  of  whom  was 
present  when  this  great  scene  was  enacted. 

The  delegation  from  the  United  States  was  the  first 
to  be  called  up  after  the  Germans.  President  Wilson 
rose,  and  as  he  began  his  walk  to  the  historic  table,  fol- 
lowed in  order  by  Secretary  Lansing,  Colonel  House, 
General  Bliss,  and  Mr.  White,  other  delegates  stretched 
out  their  hands  to  congratulate  him.  He  came  forward 
with  a  broad  smile,  and  signed  his  name  at  the  spot  in- 
dicated by  M.  William  Martin,  director  of  the  protocol. 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  followed  the  American  delegation, 
together  with  Mr.  Balfour,  Lord  Milner,  Mr.  Bonar 
Law,  and  Mr.  Barnes;  and  when  these  five  men  had 
signed,  the  delegates  from  the  British  dominions  fol- 
lowed, a  notable  array  of  men  representing  the  greatest 
power  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Then  came  the  delega- 
tion of  the  French  Republic,  in  order,  Messieurs  Clem- 
enceau,  Pichon,  Klotz,  Tardieu,  and  Cambon,  the  pres- 
ident of  the  council  signing  his  name  without  seating 
himself.  Then  came  the  delegations  of  Italy,  Japan, 
and  Belgium.  At  3  :50  o'clock  all  signatures  had  been 
completed,  and  the  president  of  the  conference  an- 
nounced : 


THE  F0URTEE:N'  POIKTS  357 

"  Messieurs,  all  the  signatures  have  been  given.  The 
signature  of  the  conditions  of  peace  between  the  Allied 
and  Associated  powers  and  the  German  Republic  is  an 
accomplished  fact.     The  session  is  adjourned." 

The  official  protocol  verifies  the  fact  that  M.  Clemen- 
ceau  used  the  word  ^'  republic  "  in  his  final  statement. 

Immediately  afterward  the  great  guns  began  to  boom 
from  the  battery  near  the  orangerie.  The  delegates 
rose  and  congratulated  one  another.  The  notables 
streamed  out  of  the  palace  to  join  the  crowd,  which  had 
begun  shouting  in  wild  enthusiasm  with  the  first  sound 
of  the  guns.  The  great  fountains  of  the  park  were 
turned  on,  and  the  water  marvels  of  Lenotre  began  to 
play  in  the  mellow  sunshine  throughout  one  of  the  most 
impressive  playgrounds  of  the  world. 

The  Germans  were  the  first  to  leave  the  Hall  of  Mir- 
rors, passing  out  alone,  and  immediately  taking  their 
automobiles  for  the  hotel.  A  short  time  later  M.  Clem- 
enceau  invited  President  Wilson  and  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
to  view  the  fountains  with  him.  The  moment  that  the 
three  men  appeared  before  the  crowd  a  great  wave  of 
wildly  cheering  humanity  rushed  toward  them.  They 
locked  arms,  and  preceded  by  a  protecting  guard  of 
soldiers  and  attendants  attempted  to  gain  the  terrace 
above  the  fountain  of  Latona,  in  order  to  look  over  the 
broad  expanse  of  the  tapis  vert  to  the  vista  of  canals 
and  woods  beyond.  Even  here  the  crowd  pushed  for- 
ward; men  slapped  them  on  the  back  in  their  exuber- 
ance, strangers  shouted  hoarse  greetings  into  their  ears, 
and  it  was  a  most  fortunate  and  remarkable  fact  that 
they  returned  to  the  palace  in  safety.     They  then  went 


358  THE  ADVEiTTURES  OF 

to  the  salon  of  the  old  senate,  where  they  met  Baron 
Sonnino  and  later  Baron  Makino,  and  indulged  in  the 
beverage  of  the  conference  —  tea. 

After  signing  the  treaty  of  peace  the  German  pleni- 
potentiaries gave  the  following  statement  to  the  United 
Press : 

We  have  signed  the  treaty  without  any  mental  reservation. 
What  we  have  signed  we  will  carry  out.  The  German  people  will 
compel  those  in  power  to  hold  to  and  conform  to  the  clauses.  But 
we  believe  that  the  entente  in  its  own  interest  will  consider  it 
necessary  to  modify  some  articles  when  it  becomes  aware  that  the 
execution  of  these  articles  is  impossible. 

We  believe  that  the  entente  will  not  insist  upon  the  delivery  of 
the  kaiser  and  upon  that  of  the  high  officers. 

The  central  government  has  not  aided  any  attack  against  Po- 
land, Germany  will  make  every  effort  to  prove  that  she  is  worthy 
of  entering  the  League  of  Nations. 

Eor  the  rest  of  that  day  and  night  Versailles  and 
Paris,  throwing  aside  "  le  calme  et  la  dignite,"  gave 
themselves  up  to  a  delirium  of  joy,  a  revel  that  came  as 
the  logical  reaction  to  five  years  of  pent-up  grief  and 
suffering. 

That  evening  the  President  of  the  United  States  is- 
sued the  following  statement: 

As  I  look  back  over  the  eventful  months  I  have  spent  in  France 
my  memory  is  not  of  conferences  and  hard  work  alone,  but  also  of 
the  innumerable  acts  of  generosity  and  friendship  which  have 
made  me  feel  how  genuine  the  sentiments  of  France  are  toward 
the  people  of  America,  and  how  fortunate  I  have  been  to  be  the 
representative  of  our  people  in  the  midst  of  a  nation  which  knows 
how  to  show  its  kindness  with  so  much  charm  and  such  open  mani- 
festations of  what  is  in  its  heart. 

Deeply  as  I  rejoice  at  the  prospect  of  joining  my  own  country- 
men again,  I  leave  France  with  genuine  regret.  My  deep  sym- 
pathy for  her  people  and  belief  in  her  future  have  confirmed  my 
thoughts,  enlarged  by  the  privilege  of  association  with  her  public 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  359 

men,  conscious  of  more  than  one  affectionate  friendship  formed, 
and  profoundly  grateful  for  the  unstinted  hospitality  and  for  the 
countless  kindnesses  which  have  made  me  feel  welcome  and  at 
home. 

I  take  the  liberty  of  bidding  France  Godspeed  as  well  as  good- 
bye, and  of  expressing  once  more  my  abiding  interest  and  entire 
confidence  in  her  future. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

President  Wilson  leaves  France  with  two  treaties  of  peace,  and  the 
United  States  Senate  gets  the  stage  at  last. 

And  so  it  came  about  that  Woodrow  Wilson,  the  first 
President  of  the  United  States  to  set  foot  on  European 
soil  during  his  term  of  office,  completed  the  momentous 
mission  that  had  kept  him  for  over  six  months  in  the 
capital  of  France,  and  embarked  once  more  on  the  good 
ship  George  Washington,  a  pilgrim  returning  to  his 
native  land. 

Six  hours  after  signing  the  treaty  of  peace,  at  9:45 
on  the  evening  of  June  28,  President  Wilson  boarded 
a  special  train  awaiting  him  at  the  Gare  des  Invalides 
for  Brest.  With  him  were  Mrs.  Wilson ;  Miss  Margaret 
Wilson;  the  American  ambassador  to  France,  Hugh 
Wallace;  Admiral  Grayson,  and  the  following  official 
representatives  of  the  French  republic:  M.  Pichon, 
minister  of  foreign  affairs ;  M.  Legues,  minister  of  ma- 
rine; and  M.  Tardieu,  peace  commissioner  and  high 
commissioner  of  the  French  Pepublic  to  the  United 
States. 

President  Wilson  had  come  to  France  on  one  of  the 
most  difficult  missions  that  ever  confronted  an  American 
statesman.  He  was  leaving  for  the  United  States  now 
to  urge  the  ratification  of  the  document  that  he  had  just 
signed.     On  December  13,   1918,   he  had  arrived   in 

360 


THE  rOUETEEN  POIISTTS  361 

Prance,  and  save  for  ten  days  in  tlie  United  States  and 
fourteen  days  on  the  ocean  lie  liad  been  continuously  in 
Europe  for  over  six  months.  In  that  period  hardly 
a  moment  of  liberty  had  been  his.  Every  hour  was 
crowded  with  the  hardest  kind  of  work;  day  after  day 
he  was  called  on  to  make  decisions  that  might  commit 
his  country  to  definite  policies  and  dictate  its  attitude 
in  international  affairs  for  generations  to  come.  When 
he  was  not  in  conference  with  other  peace  commission- 
ers and  subsidiary  bodies  of  the  Peace  Conference,  he 
was  consulting  his  experts,  investigators,  and  advisers; 
time  and  again  he  gave  ear  to  unofficial  delegations  that 
came  to  plead  their  cause  before  him.  There  were 
formal  bodies  to  address,  and  calls  of  state  and  courtesy 
to  be  made,  and  even  on  those  few  occasions  when  he 
enjoyed  a  drive  over  the  boulevards  of  Paris  his  mind 
was  busy.     His  was  no  eight-hour  working  day. 

The  multitude  that  bade  him  God-speed  at  the  Gare 
des  Invalides  was  far  different  from  the  howling,  de- 
lirious crowd  that  acclaimed  him  when  first  he  came  to 
Prance.  But  its  ''  Auvoir! ''  was  no  less  sincere  and 
heart-felt  because  it  was  quiet  and  orderly  and  spoken 
by  a  crowd  that  appraised  the  President  at  his  true 
value.  He  had  come  to  Europe  the  hope  of  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men.  In  Prance  he  had  been  a  hero. 
In  England  he  had  aroused  the  enthusiasm  of  the  con- 
servative, the  advanced  liberal,  the  radical,  and  the 
toiler  in  the  ranks.  In  Italy  he  had  been  welcomed 
with  garlands  of  roses.  In  Germany  he  had  been  her- 
alded as  the  liberator  who  would  safeguard  her  from 
the  wrath  of  the  European  nations  she  had  outraged. 


362  THE  ADYE:N'TUEES  OF 

'Now  he  was  going  home,  and  all  Europe  knew  that  he 

was  neither  demigod  nor  dealer  in  magic,  but  just  an 
honest,  straightforward  American  statesman  who  had 
faced  a  gigantic  task  without  flinching  and  had  per- 
formed a  man's  work  in  the  world. 

The  President  might  well  have  reflected  on  all  this 
as  his  train  moved  quietly  out  of  the  suburbs  of  Paris 
that  night.  Travel  is  slow  in  Erance,  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday  morning  he  was  still  on  his  way  to  the 
sea-coast,  passing  through  the  picturesque  Breton  coun- 
try that  had  seen  the  coming  of  the  American  host. 
Out  of  the  windows  of  his  car  he  might  still  see  con- 
tingents of  the  army  of  democracy  in  olive  drab.  Here 
and  there,  as  the  train  bowled  through  quaint  hamlets 
and  villages,  the  peasant  folk  held  up  their  babes  so 
that  they  might  catch  his  greeting  and  speak  of  it  in 
after  years. 

At  11 :40  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning  his  train 
reached  Brest,  and  amid  the  strains  of  ^'  The  Star- 
Spangled  Banner  "  and  the  booming  of  cannon  the  Pres- 
ident boarded  the  little  gunboat  that  was  to  take  him 
to  the  George  Washington,  lyiiig  with  steam  up  in  the 
roadstead.  He  was  leaving  the  soil  of  Erance.  Here 
was  the  end  of  a  period,  and  history  would  speak  of  his 
sojourn  as  an  event  without  precedent.  What  mo- 
mentous consequences  were  bound  up  in  it  ?  No  one 
could  foretell,  least  of  all  he.  As  he  had  said  a  few 
evenings  before  at  the  farewell  reception  given  by  the 
President  of  the  French  Eepublic  to  the  members  of 
the  Peace  Conference  in  the  Elysee  Palace,  only  a  part 
of  the  great  work  was  finished ;  there  remained  another 


THE  FOUETEElSr  POINTS  363 

part  which  had  just  been  begun  —  to  organize  the  world 
anew,  to  bring  about  a  reign  of  justice  between  men, 
"  a  common  conception  of  duties,  a  common  conception 
of  the  rights  of  the  men  of  all  races  and  of  all  nations.'^ 

And  then  the  bank  struck  up  "  La  Marseillaise,'^  and 
standing  on  the  deck  of  the  gunboat  with  bared  head. 
President  Wilson  remarked  at  its  close  to  one  of  the 
French  statesmen : 

^^  I  hope  there  will  be  no  more  wars ;  in  any  case,  no 
great  war." 

At  2:15  o'clock  the  George  Washington  weighed  an- 
chor, and,  accompanied  by  the  cruiser  Chattanooga,  fly- 
ing the  flag  of  Admiral  Knapp ;  the  cruiser  OMahoma; 
the  French  cruiser.  La  Marseillaise;  and  three  French 
destroyers,  turned  her  bow  toward  the  wide  ocean.  At 
Pierres  Noires,  the  Land's  End  of  France,  the  French 
escort  gave  the  salute  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  for  the  last  time. 

He  turned  his  face  resolutely  to  the  west.  He  had 
gone  to  France  holding  firmly  to  the  Fourteen  Points 
and  to  the  principles  of  humanity  and  justice  that  he 
had  enunciated  in  his  speeches.  How  had  these  prin- 
ciples fared  ? 

There  was  the  first  point,  ^'  Open  covenants,  openly 
arrived  at."  The  President's  critics  had  applied  that 
to  this  Peace  Conference  as  well  as  to  such  as  might  fol- 
low. In  Paris,  the  critics  said,  this  had  been  a  hollow 
mockery.  There  had  been  no  open  covenants,  nor  had 
they  been  arrived  at  openly.  This  was  probably  the 
most  secret  peace  conference  ever  held,  said  Auguste 
Gauvain  in  the  "  Journal  des  Debats."     And  yet  the 


364  THE  ADyE:^^TUKES  OF 

President  of  the  United  States  bad  drawn  up  that  state- 
ment of  principle,  and  the  other  great  powers  had  rati- 
fied it  and  adopted  it  as  their  own. 

My  memory  went  back  to  the  opening  days  of  the 
conference,  when  we  made  our  first  fight  for  publicity. 
*'  Let  everything  be  transacted  in  the  light  of  day," 
we  had  said,  and  there  will  be  no  cry  of  betrayals  after- 
ward. I  remember  how  the  proposal  shocked  the  em- 
inent leaders  of  foreign  chanceries,  who  had  not  been 
used  to  consulting  the  rabble  when  they  embarked  on 
matters  of  foreign  diplomacy,  who  accounted  to  the 
people  through  staged,  non-committal  speeches  in  legis- 
lative chambers,  who  considered  foreign  affairs  too  in- 
tricate for  the  every-day  toiler,  save  only  when  he  was 
called  upon  to  carry  a  gim.  The  British  had  been  as 
frank  as  any  of  the  European  governments,  but  inher- 
ently they  were  not  lovers  of  publicity  for  diplomatic 
affairs;  in  fact,  they  probably  had  more  secret  treaties 
to  their  credit  than  any  other  people  on  the  globe.  As 
for  M.  Clemenceau,  the  thought  of  publicity  was  heresy 
to  him.  Italy's  censorship  of  the  press  had  been  so 
unreasonable  and  one-sided  that  no  great  love  for  open- 
ness might  be  expected  there,  and  nothing  was  to  be 
hoped  for  from  Japan.  President  Wilson  was  tem- 
peramentally against  publicity,  and  yet  he  believed  in 
it  implicitly  in  principle,  and  sought  to  apply  it,  and 
to  a  certain  extent  he  probably  considers  that  he  has 
been  accessible  and  communicative.  It  was  to  Presi- 
dent Wilson  that  the  world  had  to  turn  for  light,  and 
he  gained  the  concession  of  public  plenary  sessions  of 


THE  FOUKTEEN  POINTS  365 

the  Peace  Conference.  It  was  little  enough,  but  it  was 
something. 

The  seal  of  silence  weighed  heavily  upon  the  other 
members  of  the  American  mission,  and  it  was  difficult 
to  get  an  opinion  even  on  the  time  of  day  or  the  state 
of  the  weather,  although  I  remember  that  one  of  our 
commissioners  did  commit  himself  irrevocably  one  day 
on  the  disadvantages  of  open  plumbing.  But  the  rule 
began  to  be  broken  now  and  then  by  the  very  men  who 
had  been  so  solicitous  that  it  be  kept,  and  for  a  very 
simple  reason.  It  happened  that  the  Peace  Conference 
was  not  a  love-feast,  or  a  meeting  of  a  group  of  men 
holding  the  same  views,  but  a  serious  discussion  by  men 
of  the  most  diverse  views,  who  advocated  many  differ- 
ent aims.  It  soon  came  to  the  notice  of  many  that  to 
gain  their  point  they  must  plead  their  cause  before  the 
world.  Thus  if  things  went  badly  for  Prance  in  the 
Council  of  the  Four,  France  was  sure  to  put  emphasis 
upon  her  demands  and  try  to  gain  support  for  her  point 
of  view  by  advocating  it  in  the  newspapers.  As  for  the 
minor  states  that  did  or  did  not  win  their  claims  before 
the  various  councils,  commissions,  and  committees,  their 
representatives  spoke  freely  at  any  and  all  times,  giv- 
ing chapter  and  verse,  and  citing  tales  out  of  school 
that  cheered  the  heart  of  the  correspondent. 

Moreover,  though  the  five  members  of  the  American 
mission  said  little,  there  were  numbers  of  men  round 
about  the  Crillon  who  told  the  story  of  their  work  gladly. 
Heads  of  commissions  and  subcommissions,  technical 
advisers  and  experts  —  all  were  anxious  and  ready  to 


366  THE  ADVEISTTUKES  OF 

elucidate  their  point  of  view.  Xext  to  this  group  was 
that  great  army  of  persons  interested  in  particular 
causes,  such  as  missionaries  who  took  definite  sides  in 
native  disputes,  amateur  diplomats  who  at  one  time  or 
another  wrote  books  on  history  and  political  science, 
academicians  who  talked  about  ''  the  clash  of  vital 
interests  "  and  ''  the  new  order  of  things,"  and  finally 
that  large  body  of  business  and  professional  men  who 
had  been  granted  passports  for  no  reason  that  any  one 
ever  discovered,  and  who  were  investigating  everything 
from  the  wages  paid  to  makers  of  pie-plates  in  Great 
Britain  to  the  demand  for  ice-cream  soda-fountains  on 
the  Riviera. 

In  time  the  barriers  dropped  still  farther,  and  Colo- 
nel House  agreed  to  meet  the  correspondents  daily  at  6 
p.  M.,  while  the  correspondents  were  able  to  keep  a  still 
better  watch  on  the  work  the  President  was  engaged  in 
through  regular  conferences  with  Ray  Stannard  Baker, 
who  consulted  President  Wilson  every  day  in  behalf  of 
the  press  and  who  performed  a  really  notable  service 
for  the  Peace  Conference  and  for  the  American  people 
by  the  conscientious  and  intelligent  manner  in  which  he 
performed  his  duties. 

President  Wilson  is  not  at  all  monosyllabic  or  reti- 
cent in  discussion.  He  speaks  as  freely  as  he  writes 
and  apparently  without  reservation,  but  newspaper  men 
have  learned  that  his  discussion  is  apt  to  be  more  his- 
torical than  contemporary;  that  he  is  more  likely  to 
comment  on  events  of  three  weeks  ago  than  on  those  in 
the  mouth  of  the  public  to-day.  But  there  was  one 
occasion  during  the  Peace  Conference  when  the  Presi- 


THE  FOUETEE:^  points  367 

dent  spoke  direct  and  to  the  point  to  the  newspaper 
men  on  affairs  of  vital  importance.  That  occurred  on 
the  day  preceding  the  plenary  session  at  which  the  first 
draft  of  the  covenant  of  the  League  of  Nations  was  read 
to  the  world.  The  President  had  just  finished  one  of 
the  hardest  tasks  of  the  conference.  He  had  presided 
at  the  meetings  of  the  commission  that  had  drawn  up 
the  league  for  days  on  end  and  had  worked  mornings, 
afternoons,  and  late  into  the  night  in  the  preparation 
of  this  historic  document.  Because  he  opposed  the 
views  of  France  for  the  insertion  of  clauses  meant  to 
build  up  a  central  military  authority,  he  was  made  the 
target  for  a  bitter  campaign  of  criticism  in  the  French 
press.  The  league  covenant  had  been  on  the  rocks  more 
than  once,  but  the  President  finally  had  steered  it  safely 
into  port.  This  was  the  regular  morning  conference 
with  the  journalists,  but  instead  of  Secretary  Lansing, 
the  President  walked  into  the  circle  of  the  newspaper 
men  at  the  Hotel  de  Crillon.  He  spoke  for  fully  fifty- 
five  minutes  by  the  clock  with  hardly  an  interruption, 
and  what  he  said  covered  the  whole  subject  of  the  actual 
situation  at  the  Peace  Conference.  He  spoke  freely 
about  the  attitude  of  this  country  and  that,  and  dis- 
closed many  details  of  the  negotiations  that  had  led  up 
to  the  writing  of  the  first  draft  of  the  covenant  of  the 
league. 

"  But,  gentlemen,"  said  the  President,  "  you  under- 
stand, I  am  not  to  be  quoted.  Not  even  as  ^  the  highest 
authority.'  Every  one  knows  who  is  meant  by  ^  the 
highest  authority.'  " 

The  President  was  quoted,  however,  through  an  in- 


368  THE  ADVEITTURES  OF 

advertence,  for  part  of  his  talk,  and  as  this  part  has 
been  widely  discussed  since,  I  am  violating  no  confi- 
dences by  repeating  it  here.  It  was  the  statement 
that  when  the  President  came  to  examine  the  question 
of  the  freedom  of  the  seas  in  relation  to  the  League 
of  N^ations  and  future  wars,  it  dawned  on  him,  as  he 
said,  that  the  "  joke  was  on  him  " ;  that  there  would  be 
no  neutrals  to  respect  in  case  of  war  in  the  future,  for 
the  reason  that  under  the  league  all  nations  would  be 
either  for  or  against  the  decision  of  the  league,  and 
as  part  of  the  league's  action  to  enforce  its  decisions, 
the  seas  would  be  controlled  by  the  powers  of  the 
league. 

When  President  Wilson  came  to  France  he  found 
that  just  as  he  had  made  up  his  mind  that  the  League 
of  IN'ations  must  be  formed,  so  each  of  the  other  nations 
had  certain  pet  objects  which  they  wanted  the  Peace 
Conference  to  adopt,  and  in  several  cases  the  prime 
ministers  had  made  definite  promises  to  their  people  to 
this  end.  Prime  Minister  Lloyd  George,  for  instance, 
was  firm  against  conscript  armies.  M.  Clemenceau 
had  made  definite  promises  of  reparation,  and  rather 
than  raise  more  money  by  taxes,  the  French  cabinet 
looked  forward  to  having  its  bills  paid  by  Germany. 
Signer  Orlando  and  Baron  Sonnino  were  pledged  to  get 
everything  called  for  by  the  treaty  of  London,  the  treaty 
of  St.  Jean  de  Maurienne,  and  the  most  extreme  claims 
to  territory  of  the  Italian  nationalists.  The  Japanese 
were  determined  to  get  a  confirmation  of  their  Shan- 
tung arrangement  with  China,  and  a  statement  guaran- 
teeing racial  equality  in  international  relations. 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  369 

It  has  been  pointed  out  frequently  that  America 
played  so  important  a  role  at  the  conference  because 
we  came  with  clean  hands,  pledged  to  nothing  except 
justice  and  fair  dealing.  !N'othing  —  except  the  league. 
That  we  wanted,  that  we  must  have,  and  there  they  had 
us.  President  Wilson  was  determined  that  the  time 
for  the  league  had  come.  Many  other  men  held  that 
vision  in  bygone  ages,  and  labored  at  it  sincerely  and 
honestly  until  they  went  down  in  defeat  before  igno- 
rance, self-interest,  and  greed.  The  world  had  grown 
apace  in  one  hundred  years;  there  was  to-day  a  fairly 
intelligent  electorate  where  a  century  ago  saw  only  a 
hope  and  a  promise.  Self-interest  and  greed  remained, 
but  it  was  likely  that  these  would  dictate  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  league.  To  get  the  league  President  Wilson 
determined  that  it  must  be  inextricably  bound  up  with 
the  Treaty  of  Peace.  That  was  his  victory,  but  to  win 
it  he  had  to  suffer  casualties. 

I  remember  one  morning  hearing  M.  Pichon  say 
quite  distinctly  that  the  league  covenant  would  not  be 
a  part  of  the  treaty  of  peace.  I  remember  that  M.  Tar- 
dieu  said  the  same  thing  in  my  presence  four  days  later. 
I  remember  also  that  President  Wilson  said  most  de- 
cidedly that  it  would.  I  do  not  know  whether  President 
Wilson  was  compelled  to  give  on  one  point  to  win  an- 
other. It  is  certain  that  France  gained  extraordinary 
concessions  elsewhere  and  then  agreed  to  the  league.  I 
do  think  that  without  the  league  we  might  have  had  a 
better  treaty  of  peace,  but  if  it  proves  successful,  it  was 
worth  the  cost.  There  is  this  one  great  argument  for 
the  league;  should  it  become  a  vital,  working  force,  it 


370  THE  ADVE:N'TURES  OF 

would  be  able  eventually  to  undo  all  that  is  harmful  and 
unjust  in  the  treaty  of  peace.  That,  I  believe,  is  the 
President's  firm  hope  and  conviction. 

Even  if  the  idea  of  the  league  had  not  encumbered 
the  negotiations.  President  Wilson  would  still  have  had 
to  face  those  engagements  entered  into  by  the  Allies 
before  America  appeared  on  the  scene,  and  it  must  be 
recalled  that  there  was  nothing  politically  immoral  in 
secret  bargainings  and  secret  pledges  and  transfer  of 
strategic  territory  until  President  Wilson  marshaled 
public  opinion  against  this  vicious  practice.  The  Presi- 
dent faced  cold,  practical  politics  as  it  has  been  played 
from  time  immemorial.  He  came  with  a  new  code  of 
rules,  and  the  players  permitted  some  of  those  rules  to 
go  into  effect  because  they  felt  that  he  had  the  public 
opinion  of  the  world  with  him ;  but  they  ignored  others 
of  those  rules  because  they  were  sure  of  their  own  posi- 
tion. President  Wilson  had  an  alternative.  He  could 
wash  his  hands  of  the  whole  matter,  leave  the  Peace 
Conference,  return  to  the  United  States,  and  recommend 
a  separate  peace.  America  would  then  have  had  the 
satisfaction  of  being  true  to  its  ideals,  but  the  European 
powers  and  their  Asiatic  ally  would  have  made  peace 
according  to  the  old  code  of  bargaining,  which  meant  a 
disregard  of  the  interests  of  many  of  the  little  people3 
who  looked  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  for 
moral  support  and  guidance ;  a  division  of  the  German 
colonies  among  the  victors;  the  political  delivery  of 
Shan-tung  to  Japan ;  an  isolated  policy  for  the  United 
States  in  the  far  East,  by  the  terms  of  which  the  United 
States  would  either  have  to  fight  or  subside,  and  the 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  371 

failure  of  the  League  of  ^N'ations  and  the  great  hope 
for  which  it  stood. 

President  Wilson  remained.  He  knew  that  one  thing 
could  not  fail  him  —  the  future. 

France  asked  great  sums  of  money  in  reparation  for 
damages  wrought  by  Germany.  France  had  a  right  to 
those  sums.  Belgium  asked  great  amounts  to  pay  for 
damages  done  in  Belgium.  Belgium  was  morally  en- 
titled to  these  amounts.  England  asked  reparation,  and 
England  was  definitely  entitled  to  that  reparation.  ISTa- 
tions  near  and  remote  presented  their  claims:  Prime 
Minister  Hughes  of  Australia,  as  with  the  enthusiasm  of 
youth,  declared  that  he  meant  to  get  from  Germany 
every  penny  spent  in  Australia  directly  or  indirectly  be- 
cause of  the  war:  if  a  soldier  had  found  it  necessary  to 
place  a  mortgage  on  his  roof  in  order  that  his  family 
might  subsist  while  he  went  to  war,  that  financial  loss 
should  be  paid  by  Germany.  And  morally  he,  too,  was 
right. 

Germany  shall  pay  all  that  she  is  able  to  pay,  said 
President  Wilson  in  effect,  but  beyond  her  ability  to 
pay  we  cannot  go.  And  he  asked  that  the  amounts  to 
be  paid  be  stated  in  figures  susceptible  of  payment. 

What  an  outcry  arose  throughout  the  Allied  press  be- 
cause the  American  President  had  stated  a  simple  eco- 
nomic fact!  And  what  exorbitant  sums  were  named 
when  his  suggestion  was  acted  upon !  There  was  ''  Le 
Matin,"  with  its  argument  for  316,000,000,000  francs, 
amounting,  at  a  normal  rate  of  exchange,  to  virtually 
$63,200,000,000.  And  this  is  the  manner  in  which  it 
was  presented : 


372  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

President  Wilson  has  given  his  formal  adherence  to  the  principle 
that  reparation  must  be  made  by  Germany  for  all  the  damage 
caused  the  population  of  France  and  its  property.  This  damage 
reaches  316,000,000,000  francs,  or  interest  of  19,000,000,000  francs 
a  year. 

The  whole  American  people  is  behind  its  president.  The  whole 
American  people  demands  that  Germany  recognize  this  debt  to- 
ward the  French  people  for  all  the  damages  caused  by  a  war 
which  Germany  wished  and  declared. 

No  American  will  admit  that  France  pays  all  or  part  of  19,000,- 
000,000  annually  of  the  debt  contracted  by  Germany. 

When  the  Erench  Government  learned  that  Germany 
could  not  pay,  it  refused  to  name  a  specific  sum,  but 
demanded  that  reparations  be  fixed  from  time  to  time, 
a  scheme  full  of  danger  to  the  peace  of  the  world.  The 
President  had  agreed,  as  announced  by  Secretary  Lan- 
sing in  his  letter  of  November  4,  1918,  that  restoration 
by  Germany  of  the  invaded  territory  was  understood  to 
mean  compensation  for  all  damages  caused  the  civil 
population  and  their  property  by  German  aggression 
either  by  land,  sea,  or  air;  but  he  did  not  agree  that 
this  should  include  pensions  to  be  paid  by  the  Erench 
state  or  the  expenses  of  the  war  of  the  Erench  Govern- 
ment. And  these  demands  on  the  part  of  Erance  he 
fought  to  the  best  of  his  ability  until  he  was  compelled 
to  depart  from  his  stand  at  last  and  sadly  agree  to  a 
compromise. 

When  President  Wilson  came  to  Europe  he  had  one 
interpretation  for  the  Eourteen  Points ;  Europe  had  an- 
other. Eor  the  most  part  the  President's  interpretation 
was  accepted,  but  he  was  not  always  able  to  force  his 
point  of  view.  At  other  times,  when  his  view  prevailed, 
there  were  those  elements  among  our  associates  in  the 


THE  rOURTEEI^  POII^TS  373 

war  who  declared  that  he  had  not  been  true  to  his  prin- 
ciples. 

Italy  declared  that  the  President's  stand  making 
Fiume  a  free  port  was  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  point 
nine,  which  spoke  of  a  readjustment  of  the  frontiers  of 
Italy  according  to  clearly  recognizable  lines  of  nation- 
ality. Eiume  was  Italian;  so  why  should  it  not  be 
under  Italian  sovereignty  ?  Why  should  the  President 
favor  the  Croats,  who  had  fought  against  Italy,  or  the 
Serbs,  who  for  the  most  part  were  poverty-stricken 
peasants  ?  But  Italy  did  not  offer  to  yield  up  the  thou- 
sands of  pure  German-Austrians  of  the  Tyrol  and  the 
Voralberg.  Broadness  of  vision,  too,  was  not  in  the 
European  scheme  of  things. 

Poland  accused  the  President  of  giving  only  half  a 
loaf  when  he  declared  that  Poland  might  use,  but  not 
own,  Dantzic.  Point  thirteen  said  that  Poland  should 
have  a  free  and  secure  access  to  the  sea.  The  President 
refused  to  give  Poland  sovereignty  over  Dantzic,  because 
Dantzic  is  as  German  as  Hamburg.  Poland  said  the 
President  had  disregarded  her  legitimate  historical 
claims.  If  historical  claims  were  a  basis  for  possession, 
Great  Britain,  France,  and  Mexico  would  to-day  own 
the  United  States  ;  Sweden  would  own  Pomerania ;  Italy 
would  own  La  Savoie;  and  no  one  can  tell  whether 
Erance,  Austria,  Spain,  or  the  Netherlands  would  own 
Belgium. 

As  for  carrying  out  point  eleven,  calling  for  the  eco- 
nomic independence  and  territorial  integrity  of  the  Bal- 
kan States,  there  were  as  many  views  on  what  should  be 


374  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

done  as  there  were  nations  at  the  conference,  and  each 
view  was  backed  by  a  mass  of  statistics  and  sworn  data. 
Even  the  President's  advisers  disagreed  among  them- 
selves, and  when  one  group  declared  that  northern 
Epirus  or  southern  Albania  was  Greek,  another  group 
was  just  as  certain  that  it  was  Albanian ;  when  one  ex- 
pert found  that  Thrace  was  Greek,  with  a  sprinkling  of 
Bulgar  settlements,  another  was  determined  that  it  was 
Bulgar,  with  a  sprinkling  of  Greek;  and  a  third  that  it 
was  pure  Turk. 

When  the  Americans  asserted  their  adherence  to  one 
of  the  cardinal  principles  of  American  law,  that  men 
may  not  be  tried  by  ex  post  facto  laws,  France  and  Great 
Britain  got  into  an  acrimonious  debate  over  the  kaiser. 
America  counseled  patience,  saying  that  history  could 
show  a  legend  of  martyrdom  for  every  royal  captive 
punished  by  physical  means.  "  Let  him  rust,"  said  the 
Americans.  ''  Monstrous !  "  shouted  Europe,  which 
had  read  history,  but  not  human  nature. 

When  America  denied  to  Brussels  the  seat  of  the 
league  on  the  ground  that  all  peoples  should  meet  in  a 
city  which  called  up  no  tragic  memories  of  international 
dissension,  Belgium  cried  out  that  it  had  been  robbed  of 
its  legitimate  fruit.  As  a  reward  for  its  martyrdom 
Belgium  demanded  the  seat  of  the  league.  Europe 
thought  of  the  league  as  an  instrument  to  punish  Ger- 
many, not  as  a  vehicle  for  justice  to  all  men. 

When  President  Wilson  declared  himself  opposed  to 
annexation  of  the  Saar  basin  by  France,  the  French 
asked  why  a  friend  was  opposing  their  attempt  to 
weaken  an  enemy.     Should   Germany   remain   in  the 


THE  rOUETEEN  POINTS  375 

possession  of  great  natural  resources  and  use  tliem 
to  compete  with  Erance?  Was  not  France  to  profit 
economically  by  the  war  ? 

President  Wilson  returned  from  Paris  with  the 
treaty  of  peace  with  Germany,  and  another  treaty  in  his 
inside  coat-pocket.  Erance  called  it  a  "  pact  of  guar- 
anty." It  was  an  arrangement  between  the  United 
States  and  Erance,  and  was  similar,  although  not  iden- 
tical, to  an  arrangement  between  Erance  and  Great 
Britain.  It  set  forth  that  the  United  States  would  come 
to  the  aid  of  Erance  immediately  in  case  of  any  act  of 
unprovoked  aggression  from  Germany,  in  the  event  that 
certain  stipulations  in  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  did  not 
assure  security  and  appropriate  protection  to  France. 
These  stipulations  were  enumerated  to  be  the  following : 
Article  42  of  the  treaty,  which  says  that  Germany  may 
not  construct  fortifications  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine, 
or  on  the  right  bank,  or  west  of  a  line  fifty  kilometers 
east  of  that  river ;  Article  43,  which  says  Germany  may 
not  assemble  permanent  or  temporary  armed  forces,  or 
engage  in  military  manceuvers  of  any  nature,  or  main- 
tain any  facilities  for  mobilization  within  the  zone 
mentioned  in  Article  42 ;  and  Article  44,  which  says 
that  if  Germany  violates  these  provisions,  it  will  be 
considered  as  an  hostile  act  toward  the  signatories  of 
the  Treaty  of  Versailles  and  as  likely  to  affect  the  peace 
of  the  world. 

The  effect,  then,  of  the  agreement  is  to  make  it  neces- 
sary for  the  United  States  to  come  to  the  aid  of  Erance 
in  the  event  Germany  again  menaces  the  latter  nation. 
The  treaty  between  Erance  and  Great  Britain  is  similar 


376  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

except  that  it  sajs  England  consents  to  come  to  the  aid 
of  Erance.  The  treaties  become  binding  when  both 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  have  ratified  them. 
They  are  to  be  submitted  to  the  council  of  the  League  of 
^KTations,  and  may  be  adopted  if  the  council  approves  of 
them  by  majority  vote,  and  may  be  abrogated  if  one  of 
the  parties  wishes  to  have  this  done  and  if  the  league 
grants  sufficient  protection. 

This  treaty,  which  was  signed  on  the  same  day  as  the 
treaty  of  peace,  bears  the  signatures  of  M.  Clemenceau, 
M.  Pichon,  Mr.  Wilson,  and  Mr.  Lansing.  The  British 
treaty  was  signed  by  M.  Clemenceau,  M.  Pichon,  Mr. 
Lloyd  George,  and  Mr.  Balfour. 

Exactly  how  and  why  this  agreement  came  to  be 
signed  is  not  clear.  Xor  is  it  clear  why,  of  all  the 
Allied  and  Associated  powers,  only  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  entered  into  this  agreement.  It  is 
practical  proof  that  Erance  does  not  think  that  the 
League  of  Nations  will  give  her  sufficient  protection 
against  the  German  danger  in  the  future. 

According  to  Bertillon,  the  population  of  France  is 
now  approximately  35,000,000,  although  it  is  estimated 
as  high  as  37,000,000  by  other  authorities.  Presum- 
ably France  has  lost  over  3,000,000  inhabitants  since 
the  war  began  from  all  causes,  including  killed  in  the 
war,  deaths  from  disease  and  exposure,  deaths  from 
natural  causes,  missing,  and  the  decline  in  the  birth- 
rate. In  1915-16  it  was  estimated  that  the  birth-rate 
was  ten  to  one  thousand.  Germany,  on  the  other  hand, 
at  the  lowest  estimate,  still  has  over  64,000,000  inhab- 
itants, and  its  birth-rate  has  not  shown  the  large  decline 


THE  FOUETEEN  POINTS  377 

that  has  come  to  France.  In  the  years  from  1901  to 
1912  the  average  natural  increase  in  population  of 
France  was  one  per  cent.,  against  Germany's  fourteen 
per  cent.  This  will  illustrate  concretely  why  France 
continues  to  fear  the  German  avalanche. 

In  the  light  of  these  figures  it  would  appear  just  that 
powerful  nations  should  come  to  the  aid  of  France  and 
guarantee  her  against  unprovoked  aggression.  But  who 
shall  be  the  judge  of  what  is  unprovoked  aggression? 
And  is  it  not  conceivable  that,  taking  for  granted  that 
both  nations  retain  their  present  rate  of  growth,  the  time 
will  come  when  Germany,  strong  again,  and  restored  to 
good  standing  among  the  nations,  supported  by  a  united 
and  regenerated  Eussia,  which  has  learned  that  expe- 
diency alone  dictates  friendship  on  the  part  of  the  Euro- 
pean neighbors,  will  ask  that  the  surveillance  over  purely 
German  territory  be  removed,  and  that  the  Saar  basin, 
which  is  indubitably  German,  be  restored  to  her  sov- 
ereignty ?  Will  the  United  States  then  apply  the  prin- 
ciple of  self-determination  of  nationalities,  or  still  be 
inclined  to  support  the  claims  of  France  as  against  the 
claims  of  Germany  ? 

Better  than  signing  the  treaty  of  guaranty  with 
France  the  United  States  should  demand  that  the 
League  of  ]N"ations  adopt  a  comprehensive  program  of 
disarmament  and  compulsory  arbitration.  Then  it 
should  ask  France  to  relinquish  all  claims  over  the  Saar 
basin.  That  would  help  make  the  possibility  of  war 
much  more  remote  than  it  is. 

But  if  American  public  opinion  determines  that  the 
treaty  with  France,  nevertheless,  should  be  signed,  the 


378  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

United  States  should  limit  the  operation  of  the  pact  to 
a  definite  number  of  years,  not  over  fifteen,  and  as  an 
ultimate  safeguard  should  ask  that  similar  agreements 
be  entered  into  between  France  and  all  the  nations  sig- 
natory to  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  except  Germany,  inas- 
much as  it  is  unreasonable  to  ask  the  American  and  the 
British  people  alone  to  guarantee  the  inviolability  of  a 
pact  that  directly  affects  most  of  the  nations  of  the 
v^^orld. 

Even  before  President  Wilson  sailed,  the  fight  to 
make  changes  in  the  treaty  of  peace  was  begun  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  which  would  have  to  ratify  that 
document.  The  leaders  of  the  opposition  to  the  treaty 
as  it  came  from  the  Hall  of  Mirrors  at  Versailles  were 
Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  of  Massachusetts,  Senator 
Philander  C.  Knox  of  Pennsylvania,  Senator  William 
E.  Borah  of  Idaho  and  Senator  Hiram  W.  Johnson  of 
California.  Senator  Lodge,  as  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee on  foreign  relations,  was  by  virtue  of  his  position 
the  leader  in  the  routine  of  ratification.  As  such  he 
made  the  principal  speeches  against  the  treaty  as  it 
stood.  Some  of  the  opposition  was  due  to  a  sincere 
desire  to  safeguard  the  interests  of  the  United  States 
and  to  ratify  nothing  that  seemed  prejudicial  to  Amer- 
ica's place  in  the  world  and  her  ideals.  Again,  other 
opposition,  especially  that  which  manifested  itself  in 
flamboyant  speeches  to  the  senate  galleries,  was  due  to 
the  desire  to  make  political  capital  out  of  certain  discon- 
tent with  parts  of  the  treaty  negotiated  by  President 
Wilson,  and  to  give  the  impression  that  the  President 
had  sinned  grievously  against  his  own  professed  princi- 


THE  POUETEEIT  POINTS  379 

pies,  against  tlie  interests  of  the  United  States,  and 
against  the  interests  of  foreign  peoples,  notably  those 
from  whom  we  had  received  large  groups  of  immigrants, 
who,  as  naturalized  citizens,  exerted  an  un-American 
influence  on  our  political  life. 

The  objection  to  considering  the  Treaty  of  Versailles 
and  the  covenant  of  the  League  of  ^Nations  in  one  and 
the  same  instrument  was  one  of  the  first  to  be  raised  in 
the  Senate.  Senator  Knox  introduced  a  resolution  pro- 
viding for  the  separation  of  the  covenant  from  the 
treaty.  It  became  apparent  that  the  resolution  would 
not  carry,  and  so  was  never  brought  to  a  vote. 

On  the  afternoon  of  July  10  President  Wilson  ap- 
peared before  the  Senate,  and  in  an  address  presented 
the  trea-ty  for  ratification.  The  President  did  not  at- 
tempt to  go  into  details  about  the  treaty,  but  spoke  in 
general  terms  of  the  work  accomplished  in  Paris,  and 
the  effort  of  the  conference  to  make  '^  the  final  triumph 
of  freedom  and  right  a  lasting  triumph."     He  said : 

Old  entanglements  of  every  kind  stood  in  the  way.  Promises 
which  the  governments  made  one  another  in  the  days  when  might 
and  right  were  confused  and  the  power  of  the  victor  was  without 
restraint,  and  engagements  which  contemplated  any  dispositions 
of  territory  and  extensions  of  sovereignty  that  might  seem  to  be 
to  the  interest  of  those  who  had  power  to  insist  upon  them,  had 
been  entered  into  without  thought  of  what  the  peoples  concerned 
might  wish  or  profit  by,  and  these  could  not  always  honorably  be 
brushed  aside.  It  was  not  easy  to  graft  the  new  order  of  ideas 
on  the  old,  and  some  of  the  fruits  of  the  grafting  may,  I  fear,  for 
a  time  be  bitter,  but  with  very  few  exceptions  the  men  who  sat 
with  us  at  the  peace  table  desired  as  sincerely  as  we  did  to  get 
away  from  the  bad  influences,  illegitimate  purposes,  and  demoral- 
izing ambitions  of  international  counsels  and  expedients  out  of 
which  the  sinister  designs  of  Germany  had  sprung.  .  .  .  The  work 
of  the  conference  squares  as  a  whole  with  the  principles  agreed 


380  THE  ADVE:N"TUEES  OF 

upon  as  the  basis  of  peace,  as  well  as  with  the  practical  possibili- 
ties of  the  international  situation,  which  have  to  be  faced  and  dealt 
with  as  facts. 

Immediate  ratification,  however,  was  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. The  Eepublicans  controlled  the  Senate  and  were 
strong  enough  to  defeat  any  motion  for  ratification 
which  the  Democrats  might  propose.  Whereas  in  the 
ordinary  routine  of  intercourse  with  other  nations  the 
President  could  carry  out  his  owti  foreign  policy,  the 
provision  that  the  Senate  must  consent  to  a  treaty 
gave  the  Senate  great  power  in  determining  our  foreign 
policy  on  questions  touched  by  this  treaty.  It  became 
apparent  instantly  that  although  the  President  was  thor- 
oughly within  his  rights  in  negotiating  the  Treaty  of 
Versailles,  it  would  have  been  the  better  part  of  wis- 
dom for  him  to  name  several  Republican  senators  as 
members  of  the  American  mission  to  Paris,  and  to  con- 
sult the  Senate  freely  during  various  stages  of  the  nego- 
tiations. With  Senator  Lodge  on  the  mission,  the  whole 
course  of  events  in  Paris  might  have  been  more  spectacu- 
lar and  exciting,  but  the  President  would  have  had  the 
chairman  of  the  senate  committee  on  foreign  relations 
committed  to  the  treaty  when  finally  it  was  signed. 
Now  he  had  to  reckon  with  the  opposition  of  Senators 
Lodge,  Johnson,  Poindexter,  Brandegee,  Harding, 
Borah,  Moses,  Smoot,  McCormick,  and  others,  all  of 
whom  declared  themselves  in  favor  of  making  reserva- 
tions which  would  materially  affect  the  treaty. 

The  changes  sought  in  the  treaty  of  peace  affected  the 
disposition  of  the  German  leaseholds  in  Shan-tung, 
which  the  senators  declared  should  revert  to  China. 


THE  FOURTEEN  POINTS  381 

The  senators  also  sought  a  more  definite  reservation 
recognizing  the  Monroe  Doctrine  as  an  American  policy ; 
a  more  specific  declaration  that  the  tariff  and  immigra- 
tion are  questions  which  cannot  be  dealt  with  by  an 
international  body;  and  a  more  specific  declaration 
asserting  the  constitutional  right  of  Congress  to  say 
when,  where,  and  for  what  purpose  the  military  forces 
of  the  United  States  might  be  used,  the  latter  reserva- 
tion growing  out  of  the  opposition  of  the  senators  to 
Article  X  of  the  covenant  of  the  league,  which  guar- 
antees the  territorial  integrity  of  the  league's  members. 
Some  of  this  opposition  was  due  to  the  fight  waged  on 
the  league  by  Sinn  Fein  sjTQpathizers  in  the  United 
States,  who  contended  that  this  article  would  make  it 
impossible  for  Ireland  ever  to  achieve  independence,  or 
to  get  its  independence  recognized  by  other  nations,  as 
they  were  bound  by  this  article  to  respect  the  integrity 
of  British  territory.  There  were  many  senators  who 
felt  that  Article  X  made  it  necessary  for  the  United 
States  to  send  troops  to  guarantee  the  boundary-lines 
laid  down  by  the  Peace  Conference,  and  who  opposed 
any  such  use  of  the  American  power,  especially  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  many  of  these  boundaries  were  mani- 
festly unjust. 

The  senate  committee  called  before  it  a  number  of 
men  associated  with  the  negotiation  of  the  Treaty  of 
Versailles,  including  Secretary  Lansing.  An  attempt 
had  been  made  in  the  Senate  to  show  that  the  secretary, 
Mr.  White,  and  General  Bliss  had  violently  opposed  the 
award  of  the  German  leases  in  Shan-tung  to  Japan,  or, 
as  the  senators  preferred  to  call  it,  the  giving  of  Shan- 


382  THE  ADVE:NrTUEES  OF 

tung  to  Japan,  which  was  of  course  misrepresentation 
of  the  facts.  Secretary  Lansing  said  in  answer  to  a 
question  by  Senator  Borah  that  a  letter  on  the  Shan-tung 
situation  had  been  written  by  General  Bliss  to  the  Presi- 
dent on  behalf  of  himself,  Mr.  White,  and  the  secretary. 
He  said  that  it  was  a  private  conmaunication. 

On  August  19  President  Wilson  discussed  the  treaty 
of  peace  in  detail  with  the  senate  committee.  At  the 
intimation  of  the  senators  he  invited  them  to  the  White 
House  and  answered  their  questions  freely.  The  meet- 
ing was  held  in  the  East  Boom.  Stenographic  records 
were  made,  and  given  immediately  to  the  press.  These 
records  are  a  fruitful  source  of  information  on  the 
President's  attitude  toward  certain  parts  of  the  treaty, 
notably  the  covenant  of  the  league.  The  substance  of 
much  of  what  he  said  already  had  become  known  in 
Paris,  but  deserved  reiteration  in  view  of  the  misrepre- 
sentation to  which  he  had  been  subjected  by  partizan 
opponents  and  misguided  idealists  who  were  holding  on 
to  the  millennium  for  dear  life. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  conference  President  Wilson 
read  a  statement  in  which  he  pointed  out  how  changes 
had  been  made  in  the  covenant  of  the  league  to  meet 
American  wishes,  a  subject  I  have  already  dealt  with  in 
Chapter  V.  These  changes  were  the  addition  of  clauses 
covering  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  matters  of  domestic  juris- 
diction, the  right  to  withdraw  from  the  league,  and  safe- 
guarding the  constitutional  right  of  Congress  to  deter- 
mine questions  of  peace  and  war.  He  said  that  the 
term  '^  regional  understanding ''  had  no  hidden  mean- 
ing, but  was  a  general  expression  "  to  avoid  the  appear- 


THE  FOUETEEN  POIE^TS  383 

ance  of  dealing  in  sucli  a  document  with  the  policy  of 
a  single  nation."  Similarly  there  could  be  no  enumera- 
tion of  domestic  questions,  although  the  President  felt 
confident  that  naturalization,  immigration,  tariffs,  and 
naturalization  were  questions  with  which  no  interna- 
tional body  could  deal.  A  nation  had  the  right  to 
withdraw  when  it  had  fulfilled  its  international  obliga- 
tions, but  he  said  that  it  rested  entirely  with  the  con- 
science of  the  nation  whether  or  not  its  international 
obligations  had  been  fulfilled. 

"  Article  X,"  said  the  President,  ^'  is  in  no  respect 
of  doubtful  meaning  when  read  in  the  light  of  the  cove- 
nant as  a  whole.  The  council  can  only  ^  advise  upon  ' 
means  by  which  the  obligations  of  that  great  article  are 
to  be  given  effect  to."  He  also  said  that  "  to  respect 
and  preserve  as  against  external  aggression  the  territo- 
rial integrity  and  existing  political  independence  of  all 
members  of  the  league  "  constitutes  a  grave  and  solemn 
moral  obligation,  but  not  a  legal  obligation,  and  leaves 
our  Congress  free  to  put  its  own  interpretation  upon  all 
cases  that  call  for  action. 

In  answer  to  questions  President  Wilson  said  he  had 
seen  a  plan  for  a  league  drawn  up  by  a  British  com- 
mittee headed  by  Baron  Phillimore,  and  that  he  wrote  a 
redraft.  He  also  examined  General  Siiiuts'  paper,  and 
was  especially  interested  in  the  plan  for  disposing  of  the 
pieces  of  the  dismembered  empire.  The  draft  of  Arti- 
cle X  was  his  own.  He  said  that  the  mandatory  power 
primarily  would  defend  a  mandate  from  external  aggres- 
sion. 

A  large  number  of  questions,  especially  those  asked 


384  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 

by  Senators  Johnson  and  Borah,  centered  on  the  transfer 
of  the  German  leases  in  Shan-tung  to  China.  President 
Wilson  said  that  Japan  did  not  retain  sovereignty  over 
anything  and  had  promised  not  to.  He  was  asked 
whether  this  promise  was  oral  or  written.  He  replied : 
^'  Technically  oral,  and  literally  written  and  formu- 
lated, and  the  formulation  agreed  upon."  He  said  that 
there  was  no  date  set  for  the  return  of  the  occupied  ter- 
ritory to  China,  that  the  Japanese  had  declined  to  fix  a 
date  because  they  were  unable  to  give  it  at  that  time.  He 
believed  Japan  would  carry  out  her  promise.  Japan's 
delegates  had  been  instructed  not  to  sign  if  a  decision 
was  not  reached  on  Shan-tung  favorable  to  Japan.  The 
other  powers  felt  bound  by  their  agreements  to  Japan. 
He  felt  that  the  decision  of  the  Peace  Conference  affect- 
ing China  was  a  disappointment.  He  said  that  he  had 
no  doubt  that  should  China  make  complaint  to  the  coun- 
cil of  the  league  about  Shan-tung,  the  league  would  hear 
her  case  promptly.  The  league  was  really  the  body  to 
safeguard  the  weaker  nations,  because  "  it  brings  to 
bear  the  opinion  of  the  world  and  the  controlling  action 
of  the  world  on  all  relationships  of  that  hazardous  sort, 
particularly  those  relationships  which  involve  the  rights 
of  the  weaker  nations.  After  all,  the  wars  that  are 
likely  to  come  are  most  likely  to  come  by  aggression 
against  the  weaker  nations.  Without  the  League  of 
N"ations  they  have  no  buttress  or  protection.  With  it 
they  have  the  united  protection  of  the  world ;  and  inas- 
much as  it  is  the  universal  opinion  that  the  great  tragedy 
through  which  we  have  just  passed  never  would  have 
occurred  if  the  Central  powers  had  dreamed  that  a  num- 


THE  F0UETEE:N'  POIIS^TS  385 

ber  of  nations  would  be  combined  against  them,  so  I 
have  the  utmost  confidence  that  this  notice  beforehand, 
that  the  strong  nations  of  the  world  will  in  every  case 
be  united,  will  make  war  extremely  unlikely.'^ 

And  here  we  may  well  take  leave  of  the  President 
and  the  Fourteen  Points.  The  great  covenant  has  been 
drawn,  and  the  first  step  in  the  achievement  of  a  just 
and  lasting  peace  has  been  accomplished.  What  reser- 
vations may  be  made,  what  changes  may  come  about  in 
the  treaty  of  peace,  are  of  small  significance  beside  the 
great  outstanding  fact  that  the  conference  at  Paris  en- 
deavored, for  the  first  time  in  history,  to  adjust  inter- 
national affairs  in  the  light  of  certain  definite  principles 
of  justice  and  fair  dealing  to  all  men.  That  fact  over- 
shadows all  else,  even  its  failures;  it  is  a  message  that 
has  gone  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  a  standard  by  which 
international  intercourse  in  the  future  must  inevitably 
be  measured.  And  this  standard  America  has  formu- 
lated for  the  world. 


THE   ETO) 


A  PEACE  CONGRESS 
OF  INTRIGUE 

AN  INTIMATE  ACCOUNT  OF  THE 
CONGRESS  OF  VIENNA,  1815 

Compiled  by  Frederick  Freksa;  translated,  and  with 
an  introduction  and  notes,  by  Harry  Hansen 

The  genesis  of  the  war  of  1914-1918  goes  back  to  the  Con- 
gress of  Vienna,  for  here  Prussia  laid  the  foundation  for  the 
military  domination  of  Germany  which  made  it  possible  for  her 
to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  world.  Here  the  rulers  turned  a  deaf 
ear  to  the  misery  of  Poland;  crushed  the  rising  tide  of  liberalism 
in  the  German  Confederacy;  strengthened  Bourbonism  in  France 
and  set  Hapsburg  rule  over  Italian  States  that  had  to  bleed  half 
a  century  longer  before  they  achieved  unity. 

In  this  book  the  author  has  drawn  upon  the  wonderful  story 
of  social  and  political  intrigue  told  by  the  participants  them- 
selves in  their  memoirs;  and  here  pass  in  review  such  figures  as 
Harden  berg,  Wellington,  Admiral  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  Gentz,  Dal- 
berg,  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  Count  de  la  Garde,  Frederick  William 
of  Prussia,  Francis  of  Austria,  Marie  Louise  and  Napoleon's 
son,  the  young  King  of  Rome,  the  fascinating  Countess  Zichy, 
Archduke  John  of  Austria  and  most  of  the  princes  and  princesses, 
dukes  and  barons  and  crafty  statesmen  of  an  age  the  influence  of 
which  survived  even  down  to  our  own  time. 

"  The  Congress  of  Vienna "  is  so  clearly  an  introduction  to 
the  Congress  of  1919,  and  presents  so  many  contrasts  and  sim- 
ilarities, that  the  reading  of  "  A  Peace  Congress  of  Intrigue  "  in 
connection  with  "  The  Adventures  of  the  Fourteen  Points "  is 
recommended  as  highly  profitable  and  entertaining,  as  well  as 
most  instructive  for  the  reader  of  history. 

8vo,  447  pages 
Price  $2.50 

At  All  Bookstores     Till?    miTTfTDV    TA       353  Fourth  Avenue 
Published  by      inii    ttlliUKl     tU.  New  York  City 


THE  NEW  MAP 
OF  ASIA 

By  HERBERT  ADAMS  GIBBONS 

Author  of  "The  New  Map  of  Europe,"  ''The  New 
Map  of  Africa,"  etc. 

A  discussion  of  the  working  out  of  European  Eminent  Do- 
main in  the  continent  of  Asia  during  the  fifteen  years  before  the 
war  and  the  five  years  of  war.  The  book  comes  up  to  the  Treaty 
of  Versailles,  and  discusses  the  attitude  of  the  Peace  Conference 
towards  Asiatic  subject  races,  and  towards  Persia,  Afghanistan, 
Siam  and  China.  The  role  of  Japan  and  the  relations  between 
Japan  and  China  are  fully  discussed.  The  Shantung  question 
is  explained  with  the  endeavor  to  present  both  sides  of  the  ques- 
tion of  Japanese  intervention  in  China. 

The  other  two  burning  questions  of  the  hour  —  the  relations 
of  Great  Britain  with  Asia  (affected  now  very  vitally  by  the 
collapse  of  Russia  and  the  rise  of  Bolshevism  and  Wilsonianism) 
and  the  disposition  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  —  are  treated  with 
especial  reference  to  what  happened  at  the  Peace  Conference. 

By  his  intimate  association  with  Asiatic  questions  and 
leaders  and  representatives  of  all  the  Asiatic  nations  at  the 
Peace  Conference  during  the  entire  period  of  the  Conference,  Dr. 
Gibbons  was  able  to  build  a  living  book  of  intense  interest  upon 
the  basis  of  his  long  years  of  study  of  these  questions. 

8vo,  571  pages,  with  maps 
Price  $2.50 

At  AU  Bookstores    TUT    rUWTfTDV    TA       353  Fourth  Avenue 
PubUshed  by     lllli    UlllliUui     vU»  New  York  City 


THE  COMMAND  IS 
FORWARD 

From  ' '  The  Stars  and  Stripes  '  * 
By  SERGEANT  ALEXANDER  WOOLLCOTT 

This  is  a  book  that  every  member  of  the  A.  E.  F.  should  hold 
as  a  prized  possession.  It  is  also  a  book  of  side-lights  on  the 
war  which  Americans  will  read  with  well-founded  pride.  It  is  a 
book  of  humor,  of  pathos  that  touches  to  tears  of  which  no  reader 
can  be  ashamed;  a  book  of  brilliant  and  powerful  descriptions 
of  men  and  things  which  we  of  this  country  need  to  know  about. 
Outside  of  dry  official  reports,  it  is  perhaps  the  most  authentic 
report  of  American  fighting  on  the  Western  Front  that  has  been 
published. 

Sergeant  WooUcott  saw  more  of  the  work  of  the  American 
fighting  on  the  Western  Front  than  any  other  one  man  in  the  A. 
E.  F.  That  was  not  by  chance.  As  reporter  for  "  The  Stars  and 
Stripes,"  the  very  own  newspaper  of  the  A.  E.  F.,  it  was  his 
business  to  go  all  up  and  down  the  line  and  report  for  every  one 
of  the  millions  of  A.  E.  F.  men  what  all  the  others  were  doing. 
He  of  course  enjoyed  facilities  that  no  other  writer  could  possibly 
command.  One  of  the  most  brilliant  of  New  York  journalists 
with  years  of  training  behind  him,  he  presented  all  his  stories 
with  extraordinary  power  and  some  of  them  with  such  beauty 
that  they  will  undoubtedly  come  to  be  classics  of  war-time 
literature. 

It  is  now  next  to  impossible  to  buy  for  love  or  money  com- 
plete files  of  "  The  Stars  and  Stripes,"  but  the  best  of  its  stories 
are  in  this  book,  which  is  illustrated  with  the  best  of  the  remark- 
able drawings  done  for  the  paper  by  C.  Leroy  Baldridge. 

12mo,  304  pages,  illustrated 
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